I am wondering if I can just enlarge the holes on the gasket with a dremel and sanding bit or will that ruin things, I really dont want to be getting metal filings in between the layers on the gasket itself.

Any of you guys experience this problem before? this is on a 1st gen B16A

 

did u buy the wrong gasket?
just use a drill bit
make sure the pins are still snug when you are done

 

Nope the gasket is perfect, the holes where the dowel pins are are bigger than all the other holes where the bolts go through, the thing is the gasket wont go over the dowel. I'll sand it down with a dremel and a stone, I'm talking microns here, it looks like it wants to fit through but it dosnt.

 

I say just make it fit and ---- sanding or grinding that ----. It's called elbow grease.

 

Tried, I ended up using a dremel and now it fits but is still very tight.