Thread: leaking intake manifold

I am sure many of you have been through this before, but my intake manifold gasket is leaking. I am not going to attempt this repair myself, not on my daily driver, and with a supercharger to boot. I talked to the dealership and they said it will be 350 + tax to fix, not including parts(which Im assuming is only the gasket). Does this sound like a fair price? Seeing how many of these Pontiacs have had this problem, is there anything I need to look out for when dealing with the mechanic on this issue? Thanks for any info

Also, should I tell them to use a metal gasket or are they using proper ones nowadays?

It's a common issue, mine went out twice on me. The dealer supposedly replaced the LIM gaskets the first time when I bought the car but it failed a couple months later, and it turned out if they did actually replace it they used the crappy plastic ones still so make sure to let them know you want the metal ones. As for if it's a fair price, i really don't know as I changed my LIM gaskets myself.

The $350 is a fair price as most dealerships around here want anywhere from $600-$850 to do the work. The aluminum Lim gaskets are on the 04+ supercharged engines. The gaskets can be had for around $45, but most dealerships will mark them up considerably. I needed a set once and had to pay $85 at one of my local stealerships.

Make sure they drain your oil after their done, otherwise you can spin a bearing on your engine. I would run synthetic afterwards as theirs less chance of spinning a bearing because the water/oil is less likely to seperate. Make sure they replace the plastic coolant elbows as well as the supercharger coolant o-rings (2 of them).

Goodluck

its really not that hard to do yourself. no way would i pay someone 350 to do it. gaskets and coolent elbows are gonna run you about 115$ for all of them, and YESS do get the metal gaskets from the dealer, 45$ here.

but 115+350. thats almost 500$ JUST for some gaskets. i had no idea what i was doing and i got it done in about 5 hours taking my sweet time. if i went back and did it i could do it in a few hours.

idk i just wouldent pay someone 350 to do it.

haynes manual
slight mechincal ability
and instrustions will get the job done.

there is a video floating around somewhere that shows a very detail step by step process of how to do it. the video was something like a rocker install on a gtp but they did the gaskets also and its very instructive

Do it yourself, its very easy. Hell, if you lived closer i'd do it for you for Dinner or something. Good luck with it...

Originally Posted by Iron Indian

Do it yourself, its very easy. Hell, if you lived closer i'd do it for you for Dinner or something. Good luck with it...

well said

$350 is a decent price. But nothing I would jump on. I have done it myself, and it is very straight forward. And there are good writeups and even a video as mentioned. With a little mechanical ability and some time, you can do it yourself. And while that $350 is a decent price, till they start nickle and diming you for all the extra stuff like coolant, gaskets, coolant elbows, RTV, oil, filter, etc, etc, at dealer price I would imagine you would be close to $600. Get a firm quote from them for the entire deal before you agree to any work.

Yea, like i said this is my daily driver, and if I mess something up I dont have a way to get to school or work and id be screwed. I have done it before on my mustang, but theres no supercharger or anything to worry about. Thanks for the advice, the final quote was 543$. Its a bit pricey for something I know I could probably do, but i dont want to take the chance. They did get me with all the extra junk, not to mention that I just did an oil change with good expensive stuff, but oh well. Again thanks for the advice everyone.

its alot simpler than your making it out to be. i thought the same way you did. i was so worried about doing it myself but once i did it i was like o this is cake!! there is nothing you can really mess up with the supercharger, just make sure you get the vacume line back on or you wont have any boost.

after you remove all the misalanious stuff. unbolt the supercharger, pull it off, unbolt the LIM (lower intake manifold) pull it off, replace gaskets, now reverse the process. really strait forward. if you pay to have it done now and you end up doing it, or seeing it done later down the road you really are gonna kick yourself for not saving 400$ and maybe having a set of headers with that extra money

You can do it easy in a weekend. I did it my first time in one day with my brother. Neither of us had much experience with the 3800 at the time. This is really an easy engine to work with.

so true.

We even wasted a couple hours trying to find a replacement for a bolt that broke. My dumb ass was looking at the wrong torque value for it. Never going to make that mistake again.

ha. it only takes once to learn a mistake like that.

Like what was said, Its WAYYY easier than your making it out to be. Taking my sweet time I can do it in 4 hours? 2 hours if I stay busy and not bull**** with friends. And thats doing it correct, cleaning gasket surfaces, running the bolts through a die, etc. Its really easy! I'd say its even easier than doing a SBC 350 TBI pickup IMO. Theres very little if any to screw up. Just make sure to have a set of injector o-rings, S/C gaskets, x2 Coolant Orings, Metal LIM Gaskets w/ valley gaskets (should be a set of 4 pieces), RTV, antiseeze, thread sealer, extra quart of oil not to mention enough to do a full oil change.... and you're good to go man!

Which coolant type do you recommend to use after completing the LIM replacement?