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Metal lower intake manifold for 05 GP GTP

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I just purchased a 05 Grand Prix GTP fore my son and the mechanic says coolant is going inside the engine. I have an appt. Thurs. to take the car in for repair and was looking online for a new LIM and to see what they cost. I saw another ad with someone selling a used engine and he said it had the upgraded metal LIM. I have to plead ignorance here, is the factory LIM plastic? If so should I replace it with a metal one? Where can I find one? Should I just wait and see what the mechanic finds wrong? I saw the post here on probable causes for the problem and most of them pointed to the LIM. I would appreciate any positive advise, THANKS
 


Don't need a new LIM.

The factory one is aluminum.

So is the upper intake.

All it needs is LIM gaskets done. It's a common thing.
 
I bet he is talking about the lower intake manifold gaskets, not the intake manifold itself.

Mid to late 2005 was the switch over from the crappy plastic intake gaskets to the better metal intake gaskets.

Depending on mileage your car is in need of replacing those gaskets so a motor failure does not happen.
 
This ^^^ I am pretty sure all the mechanic is referring to is changing the plastic gasket it has to a metal one.
 
Yup just change the gasket. If you can change your oil you can do a lIm gasket as well. Save your money. There's plenty of write ups how to do it on here.
 
Being a GTP your upper intake manifold should be a supercharger. He is probably referring to the low intake gasket. You need to change that before the engine is no more.
 


And just as a heads up unless you tell your shop you want the metal intake gaskets they will install the plastic ones, they do that to insure that it does happen again and you have to bring your car back yet again.
 
Thanks everyone for your feedback. As soon as I finish this I'm going to donate to the site and do my bit for king and country. Thanks again, I was really worried.
 
I was wondering if you can tell me how to find the write up you talked about. The dealership said I needed a supercharger outlet gasket along with the lim gasket set. I want to make sure I have everything I need. THANKS
 
you want metal lower intake gaskets, ( lim) and the super charger gasket is called a upper plenum gasket.

its a bout a 3 hour job if your ok with turning wrenches.

in this vid they change the lifters, you dont need to go that far.

 
oh, and you'll need new coolant elbows as well.

and if you shop wisely you can get all the parts for 100 bucks or less, with new antifreeze. oil change will run another 20 bucks. buy your oil when its on sale or at walmart.
 


Good job Scotty! One of the best videos I've found on doing them. Make it so much easier oppose to paying a mechanic to do something you could easily do yourself. Until then I would stop driving it so your not dumping anymore coolant into your oil.
 
its the n/a motors that leak coolant into the oil, the s/c engine seem to do ok, mine were leaking for 2 years, and longer im sure before i got it. and then i replaced them.

its not all that hard. its just bolts lol. i cant see paying 500 or more for a job that you can do yourself for around a 100 in parts.
 
Yep. I did this a few weeks ago on my wife's LS. Had a coupon for $40 off if I spent $100 or more online at Advance. Picked up everything I needed and total came out to be $75 and some change.

These are the newer metal ones. The green ones were Ok but these are the latest and greatest.

CAM00442_zps999bf7f8.jpg
 
Thanks very much for the help. One more question, the original problem was that when you start the car in the morning the engine had a ruff idle for a few minutes and the red engine symbol would flash on the dash and then stay on even after the engine smoothed out. The first mechanic told me it was a single cylinder misfire code. After he found that coolant was going in the engine I guess he assumed it was going into the cylinder and causing the ruff idle in the morning and the code. Is this correct or is the ruff idle and check engine light something else unrelated to the LIM leaking? Thanks
 
what i would do before the shop tears its open is to see if you have the new style metal gaskets.

you want to look where the lim meets the heads, if you see a black gasket you got the old plastic, if you see silver, you have the new factory metal gaskets. and should not need a lim job done at all then. theres was a few years where they mixed the use of plastic gaskets in 04 and 05.

how many miles are on the car? if its never had a tune up, they call for the first tune up until 100,000 miles these days, so if your over that or near it, a tune up may fix all your problems.
 


Probably needs a tune up as well. Clean the coil packs/ICM, get new wires and spark plugs.

Could also be a vacuum leak from dry rotted vac lines and the LIM gasket being total crap.

'04+ cars don't have a cable driven throttle body...most cars now days are going to the drive by wire (PCM controlled throttle body)...remove with off the supercharger, it's 4, 10mm bolts. Has a reusable factory rubber gasket as well...but clean it up with whatever...and a towel you don't care about. Helps quite a bit.
 
The car has 119000 miles on it. A tune up was next on the list after I got the internal leak fixed. The car runs well after it warms up. What first got our attention was my son saying he got a message on the computer saying the A/C was shutting off to prevent engine damage. I figured the coolant level was low so I had my mechanic check the car and that's when he told me the coolant was leaking internally because no external leak was observed. He said he filled the coolant system twice and both times the coolant level went down.
 
we have a bleeder valve on the t stat housing, if he didnt bleed it that could be why it needed more coolant. if its getting low fast continually, you could have a blown head gasket, they are rare to blow, but it does happen.

and you would see steam or a white smoke out the tail pipes if it were eating a lot of coolant.

your more then due for a tune up, use iridium plugs. or copper core only. the copper plugs are cheap, and only last 15,000 miles tops.

you will get 70,000 and up out of the iridium plugs.

get some life time warranty plug wires from your fav parts store, they work just fine for 30 bucks or so.
 
Here you go:

GM ACDelco - Intake Gasket #GM-89017825
ZZPerformance - Lower Intake O-Rings #ZZ-LINTORG-38 (or do the cheap mod and never worry about these)
GM ACDelco - OEM L32 Supercharger Gasket #GM-12574474
- Aluminum Coolant Elbows #ZZ-ALCE
FelPro - Thermostat O-ring Gasket #FP-35666

Bottle of http://www.seton.com/permatexr-thre...ycode=WS0194&gclid=CLC96q-zgLgCFWNp7Aodpx0ACw for EVERY bolt (all local parts stores have this)... This stuff is not your best friend, but a good one. :D

Think that's it, others can chime in if I missed something. I have not checked RockAuto's prices, the links are just reference. I've reused Fuel Injector O-Rings. I'd get a tube of Black RTV. 3 hours in your driveway will save you $300 - $400 at the shop. It's very easy to do!!!!
 
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