After looking at some of my spare engines I noticed that the engine in my car does not have that black spacer looking thing that goes between the carb and the intake manifold. I think it might be called a gasket. It has probably 6 or so tiny tubes coming out of it. My car has been running kind of lean and a person at the last track told me that putting that thing back in may or may not cure the lean problem, but that it's good to have in there and that it kind of helps create a down draft carb and also keeps the heat away. My car came like this so I don't know why it is gone.

So the couple questions I have are:
1. Is it good to have that thing in there?
2. Any hints on how to plug off those tiny tubes.
3. Is it illegal to not have that thing in there?
4. Will adding this piece affect the mixture?
5. I noticed that mazdatrix has an actual gasket for this purpose, would this be better?

It's a lot of questions but I know you folks are up to it! Thanks for helping out.

Ben
ITA #33 RX7