Coolant disappearing for the last week or so. Stopped at Oreillys to get the Felpro LIM kit (talk about serious gaskets!), coolant elbows, UIM kit, oil/filter, and coolant. $165 and 5 hours is all it takes... I had valve cover gaskets so did them while they were easiily accessible. Worst part of the job? the lower front stud on the throttle body. Taking it out was easy with the thermostat housing removed, back in was impossible unless the nut is taken off the stuf, which wouldn't budge. It took a new, shorter bolt to fix. Valve covers, lifter valley, and rockers all looked great and free of sludge.

Good job and thanks for posting the challenges.

Sounds like you caught it right away. Good job!

I would recommend doing another oil and filter change after driving it for a week. Then...good to go for another 200K!

Yeah, I plan to run the cheapest 10W30 I can get for a day, then swap for some Oreilly full synth. I normally use cheap, but they had 5 qts full synth and a mobil 1 filter for 17.99 and I couldn't pass it up.
I tried Castrol Edge for 10K miles and the consumption was too high. This stuff will prolly be the same..

No better feeling then doing it yourself. Saved yourself several hundred bucks there.

One thing I forgot. The thermostat Oring. It wasn't in either kit, and sure enough it had a small leak. Another trip up town, and 2.00 fixed it. I changed the oil and filter and will run it 1K, but I didn't see any real signs of oil contamination. Both LIM gaskets were breached at the coolant passage....couldn't miss it.