I ordered my LIM gaskets from Advance tonight, should be there in the morning. They are still the plastic ones, as they don't have a upgraded set for the 4.3. But hey, at least the dexcool isn't in there and won't harm them.

Dex isn't green

read carefully, he said it ran dex upto 130 k and was just recently switched.

Yeah I didn't switch it, the previous owner did, they fully flushed it and put green in it. There is little to no dex left in it. I do have pitting on the LIM, and I hope it does not leak, but I don't think it should. I will probably smear a little gasket sealer around the pitted area before reassembling it.

I don't think dex caused that to be honest....the Vortec'* swallowed gaskets for the first coulple years......

Agreed...and then couple that with my using only prestone LL and flushing 4 times since changing my gaskets..the plastic gaskets still looked like they were collapsing in after 1.5 years on them.

Comparison -

New -

Old -

Also I noticed, that the new gaskets don't come with front and rear gaskets like the 3800 does. Apparently I just glob a big bead of black RTV on the front and rear? The stock way was with a gigantic bead of RTV.

Forget black RTV.. Get yourself a good tube of Permatex Ultra Copper.

Make sure you clean the heck out of the gasket area with Brake Cleaner. It leaves no residue and removes all grease/oil.

LIM gaskets installed, etc. O-rings will be at Napa in the morning, ONLY place that carried the kit. Should be up and running tomorrow, and as promised if it is running good, a burnout vid!