Part arrived. Pics:



House is being completely redone so ignore the nasty floors...

This is what will keep my engine dry, though:



Tomorrow is going to be fun.
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Enjoy.
Like me, I'm sure you'll be going,"I bet I can do this in half the time if I had to do it again."

Everyone is capable of it. The first time out for any project usually takes twice as long and double the trips to the store.

When doing this.. swap (I assume lower intake gaskets and coolant elbow also) make sure and take your time. Look for coolant elbow pieces that might have broken off in the tensioner assembly or lower intake. Those can be bad timing when found as you are trying to reassemble.

Thanks...I'm going to be getting started in about half an hour.

I'm actually swapping out the belt tensioner too...it'* failed on me. Also getting the aluminum lower gaskets. I haven't picked up a new coolant elbow...but I can when we get to that point.

I'll take pictures as I go along, should be interesting to see how my lifter valley is.
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I have found the coolant elbows at Pepboys and Autozone, red packaging in the HELP section. Or the dealer for double the price.

On the tensioner.. with alternator removed..there are two bolts. One is not visible and to the left (when facing the driver side from passenger side) of the left output for a heater hose.

It'* done! Car drives like a dream now and is leak free.

Here'* what all was done:

New UIM (APN sleeved upper)
New APN 1/2" stovepipe
New aluminum LIM gaskets
New PCV valve
New MAP sensor
New belt tensioner
New heater hose and coolant elbow O-Rings (the elbow looked brand new)
New coolant (all Prestone Dex-cool)
New fuel injector o-rings
New front suspension end link (one was completely missing, unbeknown to me)
Throttle body, IAC, and MAF sensors cleaned
LIM pressure washed

All in all, took about 8 hours to do. Mechanic only charged me $200. I helped with most of it.

My car going up on the lift:



Some of you are probably going to cry when you see my throttle body. Here is a before pic:



Yuck...

And an after:



Much better.

Here'* my old upper after it was taken off the engine:



Very dirty.

And the old stovepipe area:



Dirty, but it actually hasn't failed yet.

This made me glad I decided to go ahead and do this though, some of you may cry at this too:



Lifter valley was clean, but the LIM gaskets were crapped to hell.



Look how bad that is!



New aluminum gaskets.



Everything all put back together.

Video of first startup after replacement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7fE96jS4IQ

Good stuff, now I can drive my car without worry. Though it'* still my weekend garage queen.
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You guys made some good time, it looks awesome.

Would bet it'* amazing how much better it feels with the TB and sensors cleaned. BTW.. how many can'* of TB cleaner did that take?

Do you have any more pics of the LIM gaskets, maybe a little closer?

This is maybe the best photo yet of why we need to change out our LIM gaskets.

You guys did change out the stock 3/4" EGR stovepipe for the new 1/2" one that came with the APN kit, right?

Thanks guys, it was an extremely worthwhile experience that I learned a lot from and turned out to be quite enjoyable.

It does indeed run so much better with the clean TB...it'* surprising with all that gunk I wasn't having idle issues. It does idle slightly smoother but the main differences are at initial startup and acceleration. It starts easier and without so much "strain"...it seems at times it would not be entirely wanting to catch but it would always start. Throttle no longer sticks slightly at initial startup, and acceleration is so much smoother and effortless. I found myself going 100 on the interstate when I thought I was giving it enough throttle to only go 80! I suspect my gas mileage has improved. My shifts seem to be smoother too, oddly.

Surprisingly it only took one can of carb and choke cleaner, but I had a hose and some pressurized air to help me out. I used a special electronics cleaner for the sensors.

Sorry Bill, but I don't have any more pictures currently. However, I saved everything, including the old LIM gaskets so I can get a few more pictures during lunch hour.

They would make quite a good example pic...I had no idea they were that bad. 10 years and 137,000 miles with Dex-cool took it'* toll on them, no doubt. May this serve as a reminder to all those who have not done this yet...go ahead and do so! The peace of mind is well worth it.

And we sure did install the new 1/2" stovepipe...I should have put that in my "installed parts" list, so I'll edit that now.
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My interest is in the one on the rear. Looking at your pics and trying not to head too far off topic..I noticed it "looks" like the #6 intake area was collapsed on the trans side but not the coolant jacket side.

Seeing 4-10 of these a year..I'm theorizing that GM changed gaskets because there was a collapsing problem on the ports and that the Dex wasn't directly responsible for that as much as substandard choice of materials. WillWren has posted some wicking pictures that make a good representation of the wicking..somehow...I'm not 100% convinced and your gasket may be evidence to either prove or disprove???

Either way.. the plastic frame gaskets IMO should be removed along with the sludge forming Dex.