Well just for giggles tore it all apart, had some plastic gauge and meassured gear to cover and gear to housing, for both got .0015, so total is . 003 clearance, is that around spec anyone know?
It should spin free and easy with that much end clearance. So what do you think is jamming it up? Gotta be something in there....maybe some high spots in the coatings?
I guess see your intent with the coating to keep up the idle pressures... by decreasing the clearances. But most of the pressure leakage comes from around the tooth-to-tooth and tooth-to-housing clearances... dunno if your gears are coated there. Be aware that the HV model pump will increase pressures at idle and lower RPM's, simply due to the 20% taller gearset.