Ah OK, I must have missed the part where he bought them like that. I assumed he'd filled the voids in himself!
This reminds me of an HP Academy video I saw recently, where they mentioned an issue with DBW throttle bodies (the typical Bosch/VDO/Continental ones we're familiar with) and engine vibration. Excessive engine vibration can cause problems with the throttle position sensor tracking properly, causing intermittent limp modes and other problems.
Race teams now isolate the DBW throttle between 2 Wiggins connectors, or a couple of silicon joiners. Just made me think about the time I ran stiff engine mounts and had some running problems