Hello: If coolant was being dumped into the lifter valley, wouldn't there be a tel-ltale sign of coolant in the oil? I'm told by the shop I deal with that they noticed oil leaking from the lower intake manifold (externally I assume) and suggest gaskets replacements to the tune of $500. They also warn that the manifold may be found to be cracked (it'* a 50/50 proposition) for another $400. Anyone have experience with these symptoms and is this a common isue with the 3800'* or am I being worked? I am just at 60K miles on my 2001 and have taken care of this car.

Both are common failures on these cars, but you're being overcharged on those quotes.

The manifold is a $100 part and can be replaced in under an hour. The lower intake manifold books ~4 hours I believe and I've typically seen them fail between 80k and 120k miles, though some have lasted longer than that. In order to get to the lower intake manifold gaskets, you have to remove the upper manifold anyway, so they really shouldn't charge you for any more than just the cost of the part for that.

Most of the time the leak comes from the coolant elbow, this comes out the bottom of the LIM on the passenger side. This is a less then $5 part and can be fixed in a few hours with a few simple tools. I know shops need to make money, but I can swap LIM gaskets in under 2 hours and only charge $150 plus gaskets. The gaskets do fail, but rarely leak enough coolant to make any difference. Coolant leaks mainly come from the UIM leaking around the EGR stove pipe. I do have a write up on changing LIM gaskets in the techinfo/mechanical area, I think that'* where I put it. It'* about $50 in gaskets or so, and give yourself 3 to 4 hours.