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Is the intake gasket a problem on 2004 & newer 3800?



LIM=lower intake manifold, the part that needs to come off to change the gaskets. the bolts that hold it on, take a flash light and look down at the bolts, see if you have coolant there.

thats just the bolts leaking, not necessarily the lim gasket gone bad yet. the bolts need thread sealant on them because they go into the water jackets of the heads. they like to leak over time.

when the gasket goes bad coolant gets sucked into the intake and will cause white smoke out the tail pipes and could dump coolant into the oil, causing milky looking oil, and kill your engine.

so if you not losing coolant you should be ok, but with the old gasket its just a matter of time before it fails. a lot of people here look at a lim gasket replacement as maintenance, like a oil change or a tune up.
 
mntnbiker said:
So my wife has the black plastic gasket set on her 05 :( What should I be watching for if this gasket starts to fail? She has about 132k on the GP right now.
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Don't watch or wait...just change them. Think of it as general maintenance.
 


Oops, I was looking at the UIM but I do see that the LIM gasket is black as well :( Regardless, I will probably have this done by a qualified mechanic since it is my wife's car and she needs it for work everyday (she wouldn't dream of driving my manual trans Vibe :th_laugh-lol2:). Anyone ever check into the cost of having this done? This is borderline for something I would fix anyway.
 
people have said as much as 600 for a shop to change them, but you could do it your self for around a 100 or so, gaskets, coolant, 2 oil changes. a new plastic elbow too.

theres a few write ups and a vid how to do them. most say its a 2 to 3 hour job, 4 to 6 if you are taking your sweet time, first time out type thing.
 
This may be a bit off-topic, but kinda fits. I had a 95 Bonnie, which ended up needing the upper intake replaced and new gasket. Was losing all my coolant. It cost $650.Then 6 mos. later was leaking oil. Seemed to be leaking out the intake. Heard the 2pc design was the problem.
Now I bought a 08 GP. Any experiences with these intakes failing (warping) too?
 
MyteeMyk said:
This may be a bit off-topic, but kinda fits. I had a 95 Bonnie, which ended up needing the upper intake replaced and new gasket. Was losing all my coolant. It cost $650.Then 6 mos. later was leaking oil. Seemed to be leaking out the intake. Heard the 2pc design was the problem.
Now I bought a 08 GP. Any experiences with these intakes failing (warping) too?
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since you have an 08, you should be totally fine. i believe they came with metal gaskets from factory after 06+.
 
Nope you should be fine. Now you get to deal with drive-by-wire and when your TB gets carboned up it will cause it to run like sh*t, lol...
 


Well we are starting to experience some coolant loss but do not see it leaking anywhere and the car is running fine. No check engine light, no white smoke from the radiator, dip stick oil and oil fill cap look fine (no milkshake looking oil). So before refilling the reservoir with more DexCool, I pop the radiator cap off and the pic below is what I find. Now bear in mind I had the radiator flushed and filled and new hoses put on.

photo.JPG
 
Ok, so I've been looking at the UIM gasket this entire time :th_embarassed: and thought I was seeing the black plastic LIM gasket. Guess I will have to go look at the wife's GP tonight when she gets back from work. So, just to re-affirm, if we have the silver metal looking LIM gasket, we are golden? If it is black plastic, we should have it replaced soon? FYI - we have ~ 147,000 miles on her 2005 GT
 


the upper (aka supercharger) is thick paper, the lower manifold is where you need to look, between the head, and the lower intake.

the new metal gasket is thick AL.

limgasketsideshot.jpg
 
BillBoost37 said:
Take a look and see if your gasket is black or silver. Silver means you smile and be happy, black means should replace.
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I don't know what you're talking about, but I see orange....lol. Our impala with the 3.8 is the same way.
dsc03256custom.jpg


Or am I looking at the wrong spot?
 
mntnbiker said:
Well we are starting to experience some coolant loss but do not see it leaking anywhere and the car is running fine. No check engine light, no white smoke from the radiator, dip stick oil and oil fill cap look fine (no milkshake looking oil). So before refilling the reservoir with more DexCool, I pop the radiator cap off and the pic below is what I find. Now bear in mind I had the radiator flushed and filled and new hoses put on.

View attachment 11693
Click to expand...
Ohh that's not good.
Look like this?
dsc02874f.jpg


Somebody mixed dex-cool with conventional green coolant. Who flushed it, and what did they fill it with? It will need another full, in depth flush. That's why I like working on my own car. :D
 
02NavyBlue said:
I don't know what you're talking about, but I see orange....lol. Our impala with the 3.8 is the same way.


Or am I looking at the wrong spot?
Click to expand...

your looking at the rubber seal for the end of the lim, you look where the head meets the lim, under the valve cover, like from where the orange part ends, then up to the valve cover, look for silver, if its black its the old plastic crap.

in your pic, see the 2 bolt holes for the alt bracket, that gasket, right next to them two holes.
 
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