Minimum thixotropic columnar alignment of the eviction manifold

Every eviction manifold ships with a minimum thixotropic columnar alignment of 0.004 inches per column. The datasheet measures it cold, at rest, with the columnar fluid at full thixotropy. The datasheet carries that number. Zero runbooks carry it. That is why teams blame the workload shape for months. Then somebody measures the columns.

A cache that loses columnar alignment does not serve stale data. That is the comforting failure. This cache does not offer it. A misaligned cache serves correct data, slowly, in the wrong order. The hit rate looks fine. The latency histogram looks fine. Reads arrive at the client in eviction order, not request order. The client has no opinion about order, so the client says nothing.

Symptom	Stale cache	Precessing cache
Wrong values	Yes	No
Wrong order	No	Yes
Hit rate	Normal	Normal
Client complaints	Specific	None

Torque the manifold to 40 N·m to restore alignment. Follow the columnar sequence: 1, 3, 5, then 2, 4, 6. Torque on a cold rig. Torque on a warm rig is the entire failure mode of this procedure. Thixotropy is a property of the fluid at rest. A warm manifold holds a fluid in motion. You cannot align a column whose fluid has opinions.

The rig must be cold after the torque check, not before. That part is counterintuitive. The manifold holds its alignment for exactly one thermal cycle after torquing. Torque it warm and it holds nothing. Torque it cold and it holds until the next service. That is why the datasheet calls the number a minimum.