if the guy changed your upper its only a few more bolts, and a couple other things to get to the lower. not a real big deal, as long as you have the aluminum elbow, and felpro gaskets on hand before starting. i did it in two light days, had to go out with the inlaws for supper and finished it up the next morning

Ok that sounds good. I feel like the shop is going to charge me a lot more than my Uncle would.

So I was looking at the gaskets and are these the ones I need?

Felpro MS95809 Intake Manifold Gasket | Auto Parts Warehouse

Felpro MS95812 Intake Plenum Gasket | Auto Parts Warehouse

The car is a 1996 Pontiac Bonneville SE 3.8 6 cyl

How much longer do you expect to get out of this car? If you go with the $43 gaskets, you will be looking at replacing them sooner than these ones...Felpro MS98014T Intake Manifold Gasket | Auto Parts Warehouse

Granted, they are more expensive, but worth it in the long run because they will last longer.

Might as well buy those and they're only a couple bucks more. Thanks for all your help guys!

Even cheaper on Amazon:

rock auto has the dorman upper manifold, 615180 for 70 that has the gaskets and all the updates pre installed, the aluminum felpro gaskets for 48 and the aluminum elbows for 7. thats the way i went

Same here, RockAuto is where I got my parts, I just wish they had the aluminum elbows when I did my UIM/LIM, it came out right after I was done pretty much.




Definitely get the Aluminum Framed Gasket that Mike linked you to, you do not want to put the plastic gasket back on there, they are known to fail.

Here are some links that should help your Uncle if he does the job.

https://www.gmforum.com/mechanical-1...ts-l36-297702/



https://www.gmforum.com/mechanical-1...2005-a-304071/
The coolant port bypass IMO is optional, and if you do it you should grind the coolant water bypass passage a bit to open it up afterwards, but most do not do so, and have no problems, I just would want to keep the same volume of coolant flow if I did the bypass.
NOTE: If you replace the EGR Stove Pipe with the reduced diameter one that comes with that Dorman UIM Kit, then you really should not have to worry about EGR gasses melting the UIM and causing a coolant leak in the first place, that is the route I went.

Here is a video that will help with the LIM, ignore the removal of the super charger.
http://www.cpaclubgp.com/misc/lim-gasket.html

And a link from 3800 Pro, it is the thread I made when I needed help doing the UIM/LIM job, since I had never done one before, it is a long thread, but there are many questions in there that are helpful.
Replacing UIM, UIM Gasket, and LIM Gasket. - 3800Pro.com Forum

the dorman upper kit comes with the new egr tubes. and the coolant chamber i did not do and have had no getting hot issues. its been a couple years and my wife(driver of this car) runs the a/c 24/7. also no cold running issues from lack of pre heat in the tb, that is what they are supposed to do but it gets negative temps here and it runs fine

You're right, I forgot that reduced diameter EGR Stovepipe came with the UIM Kit, and not the LIM Kit.

I imagine that somebody would have to live in Antarctica to have problems with cold starts from blocking off the coolant flow to the throttle body, I've just heard that hogging out that coolant bypass, to keep close to the same volume of coolant flow going was a good thing to do, I'd have to see scans from two cars, one with this done, and one without, just to know whether or not there is any small change in operating temps due to a slightly reduced flow, I am sure if there are any changes they are minute, but still if one has the skill to do so, and they block the TB coolant ports, then they may as well hog out the coolant water bypass a bit, there are pics on the net somewhere showing the port after it has been hogged out, it does not look hard to do, I think they are on PBC maybe.

Hey guys, so I decided to try and do a little of the work myself before my Uncle came and help me and I ran into a small problem. I was watching a video on how to take everything off and I was mistaken into trying to take something that I wasn't suppose to. I thought I had to disconnect the part to take off the fuel rail assembly. So a couple of problems. One, I have no idea what it'* called. And two, it made a little clicking sound when I tried to take it off. It also is not necessarily leaking but as I touched around it a bit of fuel was present. I don't know if I broke it or if I just took it out of place but I tried to put it back and I couldn't. Ugh, everything was going just fine but I just HAD to mess with the hose. Now I am kind of worried, any inputs would be greatly appreciated!