Thread: 3800 Intake Manifold Gaskets - Kicking our Butts

Okay, we've got about 10 hours into this stupid intake manifold gasket replacement. Finally got it all buttoned up, turned the key and the right, rear injector is leaking badly. I am so done with this job. Love the car but this particular job sucks.

The kicker is that the gaskets had already been replaced once - they weren't stock. It was leaking a lot of coolant. In retrospect I think it was from the top of the intake where the supercharger bolts down. Whoever did the job last sucked at it because there was sealant all over the place, and in places it should not have been (like under the manifold gaskets and the supercharger gasket). It was a ***** to clean it all off.

I was to frustrated to continue today. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out tomorrow.

Thanks both. We do have a legitimate 10+ hours in this project, but Day 1 was just my dad and my son because I had to work. My dad took him through every step, so that's time consuming but worth the effort. I took the day off today to try to speed things up, which was effective but my dad spent a lot of time scrubbing the intake and supercharger with Dawn dish detergent and a brass-bristled brush. We could do it again in half the time, but it was time well spent with me, my dad and my son.

Not sure what happened with that one injector. I knew when I tightened up the nut that secures the fuel rail that something was up. The other 5 injectors moved freely but that one was all jammed up. I'll take it apart again tomorrow to see what's up.

Despite this, we keep the GM faith in my family. I'm sort of the black sheep. Guess which one is mine.

Okay - all done. Pulled the fuel rail off, replaced the o-rings on the injector and it's good. The new aluminum heater bypass elbow I installed was leaking at first but once it warmed up it corrected itself. Hopefully it will remain sealed.

The friggin radiator cap is leaking a little. It didn't do that before, but that's an easy fix.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

them dodge drivers lol all i seen was cool car after car, figured truck.

Good guess, but it was kind of a trick question. That's my dad's house where we gathered to work on the car. The truck is semi-retired due to a plethora of mechanical and corrosion issues (it has 180k on it). I replaced it with the Charger. But my son took the truck because we were working on his car. So, the truck and Dodge are mine. I thought it was a funny picture because we have always been a GM family but there's that Dodge right in the middle of them. I broke from the herd with this Charger, but I really like it. My mom wants one now.

And back to the original topic, the repair worked well. No more oil or coolant smell. New radiator cap fixed that leak. The only loose end is that the expansion tank hose is leaking - need to put a hose clamp on it and/or inspect it for a hole. Now to replace that ignition harness...

Originally Posted by BillBoost37

I once had someone spend nearly 12 hours doing an intake manifold gasket at my place. He was getting interrupted a bit.

As for your black sheep, would that be the synonym for avoid? lol

It's definitely a relief to have that done, and yeah we had a lot of interruptions and a fair amount of beer that slowed us down.

I guess black sheep is an antiquated term (and perhaps not totally PC now that I think about it). The Dodge is the thing that's not like the others, but I guess so is the truck.