The other day my lil sis' car borke down. She said that the coolant light came on and the car started sputtering and finally died. She tried to restart and of course it would not start. She called me and the first thing I thought was head gasket. Im no mechanic by any means, but the symptoms seemed to fit. Well she called today and said that the shop told her that it was the intake and going to be about $1300 to fix. She said that they told her that the gasket was not the problem, but the intake itself was bad and that it was a common problem with the 3800. She said that they told her that it was taking in coolant thru the valves and into the cylinders. To me that sounded odd, but she reassured me that they told her it was intake and not head gasket. Does this sound right to anyone or do I know less about how all of that works than I thought I did?? She has a 99 GT with about 80,000 miles on it.

If in fact that is a possibility, would someone explain to me how the coolant can enter the intake and make its way thru the engine.

Thanks
Todd

LIM Gasket, very common.

Although they did say it wasn't the gasket. I've heard it pretty common/easy to warp/crack the upper intake. But you can buy a new one on ZZP for $89.99. I mean I'm not that experienced in this area, but $1300 sounds way steep to me. I seem to recall that getting my lower intake manifold gasket replaced cost me about $400 labor, so this shouldn't be any more than that, and the parts shouldn't add up to $700.
But take all this with a grain of salt because I prove fairly often that I'm an half and idiot.

The coolant passages run in between the intake runners. If a leak forms, it can work its way over into some of the intake runners and down into the engine. However, most we see is usually a leak forming and the coolants runs down into the oil pan.

I thought 1300 sounded a little high. She said they are dong some other stuff while they are under there, but sounds like only things they would have to do anyway. Plugs, wires, and fluid changes. Poor kid, I feel bad. I sold the car to her a couple years back and it was running fine. In the past year she had to have some tranny work done, pressure control solenoid @ $1100 and now this.

I had the internal leak when my LIM went. There was never a visible drop on the ground, no wet spots on the engine, and clean oil. It did exhibit, hard starts (pretty sure it was coolant pooling in a cylinder while the engine was off), white smoke out the tail pipe, and an ever depleted coolant level (right before I got it fixed I was putting in a half gallon every 3 days).
Anyhow, a new LIM gasket fixed it right up. I ws pretty scared about a head gasket to begin with too.

There are updated LIM gaskets and UIMs available: Info on Aluminum Framed LIM Gaskets for SII 3800 and GM Intake Manifold Kit

Yeah they will quote you outrageous prices to fix the LIM gasket. I had the same thing happen to my car a couple of months back. I got prices of anywhere from $800-1200. Zerg and I did it ourselves and parts cost me like $150. However, it was a big PITA!! We spent about 10 hours on it . . . so yes you can save a lot of money but be prepared for some work.

ya my dad had it replaced a few years ago and it's going bad on me again, it was like 1000-1500, they said it costed (sp???) so much because they had to remove the engine, i believe they're just freaking idiots

Its definitely a job out of my hands. The odd thing, and I hope Im not about to have (or having) the same problem. my coolant light has been coming on for the past couple of days, just once shortly after it is started and beginning to warm up. Checked it today and it is low, but there are no signs of leakage in the garage floor. Looks like i may have to park the GP and put a few more miles on the Jeep.

Can you prevent it or is it bound
to happen, so with 60,000 i better
start saving up.

there really isnt a way to prevent it, dexcool eats stuff up. and the cheap gaskets GM used make the problem worse

thats to much money for that, to repair my LIM gasket was a little over 500 dollars which included a radiator flush with the green coolant.

Im still not sure if my car is doing this or not, topped off coolant but havent checked for leaks yet. Its going somehwere, but dont know where. In the event I find that it is a problem with the LIM and not a leak elsewhere, will it hurt to continue to drive it? What are the dangers of driving it if in fact that is the problem?

Spun rod bearing from coolant in oil. Sludge!