[psychology]
What you are experiencing, this argumentitveness in the face of overwhelming opposition is called "cognitive dissonance". Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation.
This summed up means that you belive the SSA manifold is good, or will work. You believe this because you have to. You must justify to yourself that this money you spent wasn't a waste. But now, in the face of a 3 page read on Freshalloy, and numerous people in this thread who are all telling you it sucks, you need to continue questioning and creating new ideas in your head.
Here is a great example.
"If learning something has been difficult, uncomfortable, or even humiliating enough, people are not likely to admit that the content of what has been learned is not valuable. To do so would be to admit that one has been "had", or "conned." This is your case to the T.
So basically, what needs to be done is that you need to realize that you spent money on something that many, many people on every forum I can think of recommended NOT getting. You did, either because of lack of research, or lack of funds. So, with the purchase made, you need to stop questioning what is undeniably fact (or so many threads wouldn't mention SSA cracking) and just realize that you will need to pay special attention to your manifold and check for cracks. You may get really lucky. But to justify that it's great because it has all these aspects of quality work (which other, now cracked manifolds had) is incorrect. Once you learn this is all cognitive dissonance, admitting fault and growing mentally comes next.
I'm not bashing on you. I'm just saying why you are finding it difficult to believe all these testimonials and pics on the FA thread.
-Jeff

PS. Yes, after studying psychology, I am the first one to look at my $500 item and say "Wow. What a waste of money. This sucks."