Dreaded GM 3800 intake manifold gasket problem?

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Gm aluminum gaskets and a Dorman or APN upper intake manifold. The Dorman is more readily available and Rockauto has a good price on them.
 
Hi

I would second the APN UIM as it has the reduced diameter egr chimney and steel sleeve for the manifold.

Either the FelPro Problem solver or GM will work fine.
 
Thank you all for your feedback.

I shop guite a bit at Rockauto.com, but have been unable to find the APN UIM kit. Any thoughts?

I believe that I already have the smaller dia egr chimney and steel sleave since the UIM gasket was replaced.

I plan on ripping into this project this weekend... Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Thanks again,
Emil
 
I bought one of these and it was the APN brand,There are other names selling this UIM like ATP and a couple of others but this is the correct one 100%.
 
Originally Posted By: lght1
Hi

I would second the APN UIM as it has the reduced diameter egr chimney and steel sleeve for the manifold.

Either the FelPro Problem solver or GM will work fine.


The Dorman UIMs I've put on all have had the reduced diameter chimney.
 
I had the front valve cover gasket replaced recently as per the advice of a mechanic. The mechanic mentioned the intake manifold gasket needs to be replaced as well. Scouted one on the Net. I know a leaking intake manifold gasket can cause a lot of problems--thus the subject of the thread, I suppose. It hasn't shown to overheat yet and runs fine so far.

My question is how labor intensive is this?

Thanks in advance.
 
That's a pretty subjective question and I guess it depends on your skill level.

How labor intensive is it to me and a few others on here? Not very. So, I think it hinges on you... How skilled are you feeling? If you have to take it to a mech to have the front valve cover gasket replaced, then I don't think the LIM replacement is for you.
 
I could post the breakdown of eveything my mechanic did on my 3.1L GM to replace the upper and lower intake gaskets if you are interested??? cost me around 500.00. He used the new Felpro replacement gaskets that have a new mettal liner on the inside that is suppose to eliminate antifreeze from ever getting into your oil again.
 
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Originally Posted By: Mark72
I could post the breakdown of eveything my mechanic did on my 3.1L GM to replace the upper and lower intake gaskets if you are interested??? cost me around 500.00. He used the new Felpro replacement gaskets that have a new mettal liner on the inside that is suppose to eliminate antifreeze from ever getting into your oil again.


I apologize, I just found my invoice and it only breaks it down into cost for parts and labor.
 
For me it wasnt that bad at all, just a little time consuming considering i have never done anything like this before. Im 20 years old and the only experience i had was routine maintanence stuff and a few things in auto shop in high school. I was pretty confident to get it done becuase i didnt have that much money to get it done my a mechanic, so it was all up to me lol. I did it about 6 months ago on my 5.7 Vortec and have had no problems at all. I also used the FelPro set. I found a few write ups on the internet and studied them for quite a while. I labeled all the connections and went to work.
 
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Sorry to bump an old thread...

Trav, what do you typically charge for IM gaskets doing it the way that you posted ? The reason I ask is that I have a 2004 LeSabre that is starting to show signs of an external leak. I plan to keep this car for another 7 or 10 years as I bought it new and she is my baby. I think that it is better to repair what's broke and at the same time prevent other malfunctions in the future. (At least that's what I got out of your post.)

Many Thanks
 
Milkman i charge $500 with new UIM,GM aluminum frame gaskets,new OEM GM coolant elbows,OEM thermostat,flush and fill with Peak Green or JD Coolguard original formula (customer choice) add $100 if the customer wants the injectors cleaned off the engine in the ASNU machine.
GM does not recommend leak tabs in the 3800,they are mostly used in the North* engines and even then only by placing them in the lower radiator hose not the radiator itself.
Any minor radiator or heater core clogging in the 3800 can become fully clogged up with the tabs and almost imposible to clear.

These 3800 non supercharged and ford 4.6/5.4 injectors get pretty dirty by 70k,typical Bosch design.The Delphi SC injectors flow so much they very rarely clog and mostly only need an in tank cleaner if anything.
 
last week my moms car had low coolant. then i saw this post, da, its the 3800 engine thing. and a family member ( who is a FANTASTIC mach) is going to fix it next week end. thanks for having this on BITOG
 
Sorry to drag up an old subject, but it's a new subject for me!

After loosing unbelievable amounts of coolant with no sign of where it was going, I just took off the UIM on my mother's 2001 Buick Le Sabre. It had a broken gasket at the throttle body and the LIM was full of coolant.

I ordered and just received the new APN UIM kit and it looks nice. The kit has 12 blue orings and 6 sleeves about the size of the orings. Where do these go???

They don't look exactly the same size as the injector orings and there's only 1 on each of those. The instructions don't mention these parts at all.

Thanks!!
 
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