I noticed that the head gasket I am replacing on my son's car has the water channels blocked off, why did Jaguar do that, it appears that only the oil channels actually circulate through the top of the head (at the cams), as you can see in the photo below, only the OIL channels are punched out. If you look at the head upper and block mating surface the coolant channels mate up, however the gasket is SOLID and blocks the flow through...Why is this? Looks like a manufacturing issue to me, but seriously, I cant possibly be the only one to see this in the last 14 years :P... So if you know, how does the coolant cool the head and cylinders if the flow is stopped. I'll take a closer look at the heads tonight, but I swear all i see is the coolant port going up and then nothing. Thanks to anyone that can point out the great engineering going on here where the coolant doesnt have to flow by the cylinders or through the head.
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Coolant flows from the front of the engine block past the cylinders the to back, and then up into the heads, to the front of the heads.

I know that Rocketsports drilled small holes in the gasket, to allow possible formed air bubbles to get out that could form arround the cylinders. Never done this myself though.