I've been having some problems with my coolant level going down for quite a few months and I'm starting to think that I should change the LIM gasket. I'm going to take it in to my local shop for this but have a couple of questions - Does anything besides changing the gasket need to be done? Should I buy the GM aluminum gasket myself or let the shop take care of it? Should I have them flush and refill with different coolant (not Dexcool) or will it not matter with the aluminum gasket? Anything else I need to be aware of? Thanks for your help!

Get the aluminum gaskets one way or another (dealer or www.intense-racing.com ) and peanut butter would be a better choice than DEX.

Is it an external leak, or only a drop in level? How'* the oil look inside the valve cover and on the dipstick right after driving?

Make sure they replace the coolant elbows with DORMAN, not GM replacements regardless of condition.

In reality PB is a worse choice than Dex .

The aluminum you will want to ensure are used. Most mechanics will simply call and order the parts from their local places and get the old style plastic. You will also want to specify the coolant as well. Many places will simply top the level after the repair since our systems hold much more than will be drained to change the gaskets. There might be an added charge for the gaskets and flush.

In mentioning the SC oil.. It is relatively low cost and probably worth your time to change it yourself. You will want GM SC oil only. There are no substitutes.

SC oil posts were split into a new topic in Forced Induction.

I've only noticed the level dropping - I've had to refill it several times.
Should I buy the Dorman coolant elbows myself? Do you have a part number for that?
I already change my own supercharger oil so I won't worry about that.
Which coolant would be a good choice to replace it with? Or does it not matter as long as it'* not DexCool?
Is getting the injector o-rings changed fairly inexpensive? Haven't heard anything about that before...
Thanks!

As a replacement for dexcool...I like the Prestone long life.
The elbow can be found at Autozones in the Help section with red packaging.

I also had the LIM gasket leak about 30k miles ago - repaired - and no problems since. However, I found 2 other ways that coolant slowly went down more recently - (1) my overflow reservoir plastic cap cracked all the way across the top - evaporated out? and (2) the metal radiator cap was leaking externally, slowly and evaporating when hot at about 80k miles. After replacing both, I have not seen the problem again in a couple of months (knock on wood!). You might want to check that in addition to the various hose connections for slow leakers....

Carter