I was able to bring my '97 3.8 into my class a while ago to change my coolant. We were checking around for leaks and everything. It looked like I was leaking a little coolant out of the front of my lower intake manifold gasket. I have not had the engine apart yet since I've owned the car. I was wondering when I change LIM gasket, is there anything else I should look for? Maybe replace the headgasket or something else?
On the other hand though, I might be selling the car coming this summer. So I might not want to put too much time/money into it. I Just want some suggestions.

 

If it is just a manifold leak, then I would only replace that. No sense in further complicating things and tearing off the heads if its not necessary.

 

I’d say the answer to that is your answer as it really depends on your situation and the age of the car etc., if the car is getting old ( lets say 150K ) and you want to keep it running for as long as you can it definitely can't hurt to pull of the heads and have some preventative maintenance done ( maybe take the heads to a machine shop for valve job costing something like sixty bucks a side) and then replace all the gaskets with new ones ( probably close roughly a hundred bucks for the gasket kit w/ heads,mailfold,plenum etc.,). On the other hand, if you just want to fix the situation and sell the car quickly what 2000gtp said above is absolutely the case.. why complicate it and pour money into it.. probably can pick up that intake gasket for less that twenty bucks...

 

Yeah, I think I will probably just do the intake gasket and not worry about anything else.

 

Ok so, this is probably gonna be one of the stupidest questions asked, but when in stalling the LIM gasket I noticed that it came in four pieces. I know where they go to, but the two pieces for the front and the back had me wondering...The front and back gaskets have a 90 degree bend, does the rubber that comes down at the 90 degree angle go inside the engine when installing the gasket, or does it come down on the outside?

 

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