In addition to the toasted wires, the upper intake has failed on my brother'* 2000 SLE! We took it to the dealer and they said they highly recommended getting it changed ASAP. On the lower half of the manifold right infront of the front right injector there'* a pool of coolant leaking from the bottom of the intake manifold. The dealer said the manifold had to be replaced to the tune of $1,000. I asked if it were just the gaskets and he said no. There is oil in the coolant but not coolant in the oil as far as we know. This car ONLY has 56,000 miles on it too! What are our options and what should we do? Should the intake gaskets just be changed or what? Kind of scarred to drive it as-is so my brother'* going to take the Riviera while I'll have to switch back and forth between the SSEi and the truck. I though that the 2000 and above 3800 didn't suffer from this problem.

no, the coolant isn't that low at all, but there is oil in the coolant. The top of the overflow bottle is pitch black from the oil in it.

well, he got home and I checked the car out myself. I don't see any coolant leaks anywhere or anything like that. The coolant isn't even low. I think the dealer was just trying to milk money out of him. (he doesn't know too much about cars to begin with.) I'm going to keep an eye on the coolant level and see if it goes down at all. Stupid stealerships. They charged him $150 just to tape up the wire harnesses that were chewed through. They didn't even replace anywires, just taped them up and charged him $150!!

Get the TB adapter from ZZperformance, and the Series III aluminum upper intake manifold from www.gmpartsdirect.com -you'll have to get the part # from the dealer (most likely he won't give it to you), or just ask over at www.clubgp.com
Series III UIM to my door will only be $106 -not bad, and it will probably be within $2-3 of that for your brother.
And yes, $1000 is off the scale -it should only take them 1.5-3 hrs of labor to replace it.
So let'* see:


3hrs shop labor: $195 ($65/hr)

Series III upper Intake Mani $110

Series II TB -Series III adapter: $75-90

Gaskets: $30 (max)

Coolant: $25 (max)

Oil/filter/Lube: $30 (max)

Injector O-rings $3-5

Misc fee'*: $50-75


Grand Total: .....Um -should be under $575 -at $1000 someone is getting themselves a $400+ tip.

Good luck, any good general repair shop around town should be willing to do it for under $300 as long as you supply the parts.

And if you (or your brother) are somewhat mechanically inclined you should be able to have it done for under $300-350.

i'm having the same problem with my SSEi. There is a pool of antifreeze right around the injectors. It isn't leaking into the engine and I don't see any oil in the antifreeze. However I am loosing close to a gallon every 2 months of antifreeze. I don't find any leaks or drips when I park it, I have no clue where it is going though. I just keep putting more and more dex-cool into it. I was thinking it was the intake manifold gasket?? The car runs great though. I wonder if it is the intake manifold itself or the gasket?

it'* the lower intake gasket -actually it'* kinda common -I believe Rugue had that problem with 8-ball (2000 SSEi) and fixed it with a new lower gasket when he put the GEN V blower on.

Good to know. I was planning on doing it when the lift was free this winter. I'm assuming by the lower gasket you mean the intake manifold gasket where it meets the heads?

Oops!!! It'* been brought to my attention that the Series II TB to Series III UIM adapter is NOT on the ZZP'* website. I guess I shouldn't have gone on hear-say. I 'believe' WPI is the manufacturer as they do the N* TB adapter'* for the 3800'*, but I could be wrong on that too. I intend to get this confusion cleared up, hopefuly in the next 24 hrs.
Will keep you all updated, as this is something I'm sure more than a few of us want to do if/when we swap out our SII UIM'*.

Jayare627 -Yup, manifold to heads gaskets.