gap between transmission and engine

[sacwac]

Here is an interesting thing I found when tearing apart my parts car. I was able to insert plastic tie wraps into the clutch chamber. The mounting bolts are all tight., and that hard gasket is in place. These gaps are not supposed to be there right? Here is a picture (craigslist was used just to host the picture).

<a href='http://seattle.craigslist.org/car/58983330.html' target='_blank'>http://seattle.craigslist.org/car/58983330.html</a>

There are two tie wraps, one inserted into the middle of each gap. the gaps are about 2 inches long, and about a small tiewrap widths wide. The tie wrap on the right can be inserted about 4 inches, and the left can be inserted about 2 inches, definetly inside the clutch chamber. They are large enough for road grit, water, sand... not good.

[GTSSportCoupe]

Weird! I'd say thats definitely not right.

A little off topic, but: I made a big mistake when I put the new engine in my car. It was from an automatic and I forgot to switch the plate from the back of my old manual trans engine to the new engine. So there is a gaping hole at the bottom of my bell housing where the viewing plate would be on an automatic transmission. The hole is shielded by the front diff, but I guess my bell housing might still have a bunch of crap in it now. I need to find the little viewing plate piece and bolt it in down there to sheild my flywheel/clutch apparatus. Hopefully it's not too late now. I have not had time to source the piece and fix it. I do have some strange noises comming from that general area now.