Was cleaning my throttle body when I notice this crack. Enough that is goes past where the boot would seal, so it was open to the elements. I cleaned it up and applied some sealant for now. This certainly explains why I notice some splatter of dirty mud water in the intake tube the last time I had it apart. It was not much to be concern and I was not wading in deep water anyway. I figured I had not sealed something down correctly. In one of the pics you can see some dried dirt on the metal band that sits inside. Engine always ran fine and no check engine light. But I am certain like a hole in a straw, it had some small impact seeing at its located downstream from the MAF. Also I noticed the metal insert was not seated flat. So its possible this was a manufacturing defect. I heated up the plastic gently and the ring went back into place. Or the other possibility is differences in materials between the metal ring and plastic that causes stress as the plastic ages and shrinks.

Anyway, something to check out if you have some sorta intake leak you can no pin-point.