well after i got in a big fight at work the other day i was being hard on the bonnie...but no harder than i have been in the past...anyway i had just passed a guy and was slowing back down...i had the cruise set at 70....the car shuttered, shook, and started running extremely rough...the check engine light came on, started blinking, then the car smoothed out a little, but the light stayed on, so i was watching my gauges and kinda limping along...the car also seemed like it didnt want to rev much higher than 2500 or so...and it seemed to have alot less power...anyway the temp gauge started flyin sky high in a hurry....so i pulled over fast and shut the car off, called my parents...my dad came to look at it...while he was on the way there i did some looking of my own...i thought the belt might have gone, because its old anyway, and that would explain the overheating...but to my dismay it was still intact...so my next thought was...well my upper went...i let it cool down and tried to start it...it turned over once and didnt start, then the next attempt it wouldnt turn at all...my first thought was "coolant in the cylinders...its hydrolocked"....but anyway my dad and another guy thought that it was the battery, because the cable was loose...which it was, but thats a moot point..i kept telling them "i bet its hyrdolocked" but no one listened to me cause im just a kid what do i know....so anyway we had it towed home, i took out one spark plug...sure enough it reaked of coolant...took out all of them, cranked the car once and coolant shot out of the cylinders....that explains why it wouldnt turn over......but anyway as of now we have yet to tear into it, im still thinking the upper has gone bad...obviously coolant is in the cylinders while its running, also there was coolant in the oil, and i drained it out...at least i assume there was, the oil was exceptionally runny and had a orangey hue to it, i dont think it ran long enough in its broken state for the oil to get foamy and stuff....so what do you guys think?

also does just replacing the upper usually fix the problem? ive read its just kind of a band-aid...but i want some input

and to sum up, the car not been started again since i shut it down the first time, its been cranked once or twice with the oil still in it, the oil sat in it for about a day before i drained it out...as it sits now, all 6 spark plugs are out of it as well as all the oil, i put the old filter back on to cover up the hole, and stuck the drain plug back in as well...

are the lower gaskets on top of the lower intake manifold? which i assume is underneath the upper? im trying to more or less assemble what parts i will need, or should i say someone else will need, to do this...i know ill need the upper itself, from Dorman, and it comes with the gasket for that, and what about the throttle body gasket? and what else?

Sounds like those are the parts.

The gaskets probably come as a kit. Should include everything you need.

Get 2 oil changes and a coolant fill. Once fixed when you start it up any residual water will go into the oil...then a couple days later, if that change the oil again.

so changing the lower gaskets is optional? not a necessity? and the write up in techinfo also mentions changing the PCV valve as well so i guess id need one of those...does the upper intake gasket kit come with the throttle body gasket? the dorman unit says it comes with a gasket but i would assume its just the one that seals the upper to the lower...so i would need:

upper intake manifold with gasket
throttle body gasket
pcv valve?
oil, coolant, throttle body cleaner...
also i would need the coolant elbow

and the "fuel rail" is basically the area where the fuel lines run into correct? im kinda dumb about this stuf, can someone give me some pics of this stuff, and if its not too much trouble maybe some links to parts? and which ones are dealership only


id like to do the work myself, im just afraid ill screw something up.....my grandpa wants to do it but he never has time, and then theres a couple other friends that have friends that would do it for real cheap yada yada...but i want it done yesterday ya know? its tough not having my baby

allright so i came home from work a little early, planning to tear into the beast...but i found my dad sitting back in his lawn chair on the deck, with my upper intake on the porch in front of him...good man right there....good man

anyway i took some pics


this is the usual trouble area, or at least im under the impression it is based on what ive read here..honestly i couldnt find anything really wrong in this area, but maybe the hole or failure is so small i couldnt find it..

this however was an area i was concerned about, as you can see there is a little chunk missing from the right hand side of that air inlet? or whatever its called...wouldnt this definetelely allow some coolant to get into the intake stream?

another angle of the area in question, with the gasket now removed

this is what all the other ones except that one look like...its a tad dark but surely you can make heads or tails of it

ALSO i almost forgot to mention...my egr stovepipe did not come out with my upper intake, it is still attached to the lower intake, and it appears thats the way it is supposed to be, i know other members have had it come out with their upper, but mine is still in the lower, i can get pics if you want

and my upper is a rochester unit, i know you guys are more or less keeping track of that

I strongly suggest you replace your lower intake gaskets while you've got the upper off.

The pictures are hard to decipher what went wrong, given that I would look more into the lower gaskets. After only 77K miles, my UIM and UIM gasket looked great. However, I was very surprised at the condition of the lower intake gaskets. They were severly deformed. I'm convinced that if I were to have a problem, it would have derived from the lower gaskets. Positively.

Also, spend the $7 on the coolant by-pass elbow. It goes from the lower intake to the belt tensioner. They degrade over time and will crack. For $7, it'* great insurance.

Gotta love that Dad. So they are now convinced and you can get moving on this....enjoy

yeah things are now moving i guess, or at least more than they were....so the general concensus is that we should go ahead and pull the lower intake as well? what is the procedure for that exactly? and what would we be looking for? just bad gaskets? can anyone else chime in here