A garage quoted me $560 for the job. That seems high. Like maybe $133 an hour high (assuming it was 3.6 hours, and $80 for parts). I work at a Toyota dealer, we get $80 an hour.
I want someone who has done this before to do the job. Any Chevy techs in Mass looking for a side job?

 

I changed the upper intake on my '01 Impala last Feb or March. (122,xxx miles.) I went ahead and replaced the lower intake gaskets too. It's easy to do. I had a Haynesmanual and I labeled everying thing w/ tape. I went ahead and drained the power steering resand replaced the water pump t stat, and upper and lower rad hose.

Some of those items were working properly. I did a little more for PM reasons.

You may need a inch lb. torque wrench, adn agle meter/gauge. They are cheap. I needed them for a few bolts on the motor. Get some coolant and be ready for an oil change afterwards.

 

Seeing as the Intake is 1/2 the labor in doing head gaskets, I have opted to do my heads at the same time as the Intake gasket. No sense in skipping it.

Kind of like 4lowlife, doing a list of things even if they work right just so not have to do it all over again later.

EXP in doing this type of thing in the past on different motors has shown to be a wise choice. Then again I might just opt for a full rebuild even though the motor has under 150k on it. The price difference for myself is not that much different due to I can do 90% of it myself over paying a shop.

 

$560 sounds a little high to me. I would think $400 parts and labour (oil change included).
Maybe check around a bit...I could be wrong

 

Yeah, I think it's high too. I am definately shopping around. I don't really have the confidence to do it myself or I would.

 

I've been chasing coolant leaks in my '95 for 6 months now! It all started with the water pump. Fixed that, then a freeze plug rotted out. Fixed that then the intake gaskest started seeping, but not so bad it needed to be fixed yet...until another freeze plug rotted and i fixed that. Then the intakes really started to leak bad. Took care of that then yet another freeze plug let go. I replaced that and another because it was easy to get at. It's been 2 weeks now with a perfectly dry motor, so i hope everything is ok now.
Anyways, if you do decide to do them yourself, take your time, make sure everything's clean when it goes back together, and it really saves time to label things like ignition wires and distributor rotor location. good luck, and hopefully you don't end up like me and spring another leak after it's all done.

 

With seeing this it helps me lean more towards rebuilding my motor over just replacing one or two gaskets. Guess time to pull up my list of parts and start ordering.

 

Replacing the intake maniofld gaskets isnt that difficult of a job and doesnt require too many tools.For $400 I could buy every hand tool I ever needed to fix my truck for the rest of my life. Gasket kit is cheap, and so is the RTV. You could do the job for less then $50 plus the cost of tools.

The only way to gain confidence is todo it.I like to read as much as possibleabout aproject before I start on it. I want a clear mental picture befroe I start. I know there will be questions that come up as I go along, andwe cna help you with those.

Cliton/Haynes manuals are worth ther price. They do a great job covering thebasic steps involved inalmost every repair your likely todo on your truck. Yep, includingreplacing the intake manifold gaskets. They also have pictures. Even the gasket set comes with directions.

As for the hard parts on teh intake manifold gaskets.
Teh distriburator has to come out. No big deal if you mark the replationship of the distriburator to the engine, and then mark the rotor relationship to the distriburator. I prefer to use white out (old typeing correction fluid). But any high visibility marking paint will work. When you pput the distriburator back in simple line up the marks. If you didn't turn the crankwhile the distriburator was out everything will work as it did before oyu took it apart. Teh gasket kit comes with a new distriburator gasket. Teh gears on teh bottom of the distriburator are curved, so the distriburator will rotat as you pull it out, and it will rotate as you put it back in. If after you put it back in and the lines dont match simple pull it out and turn it one more tooth and try again, repeat until your lines match.

The hardest bolt to get out is the distrbiurator hold down bolt and GM makes a special tool for it, I believe Sears sells it.Your local autoparts store might carry it as well. Askfor a GM distriburator wrench and the guys can point it out ot you.

The fuel lines ahve to come off, use flare wrenches. Find the size by using a regular wrench and hten buy the flare wrench. The fittings on fuel, oil, tranny, brake lines are soft metal and you want to use flare wrenches otherwise you will round the metal and be screwed. When ever I have to buy a new tool, I always buy the set. In this case you will use the flare wrenches on all sorts of stuff on your truck,spend the extra money and get the set.

You can mark the wiring if you want, little tags with the name of what it attaches too. All modern GM wiring harnesses only fit on one device one way. In ohter words, each harness is specific to that device and you cannot screw up which way it goes on. It only goes on one way. For me the hardest part was remembering how the wiring was routed. Take pictures. Digital cameras are excellent as documenting how thing came apart. Then you can refference those pis to see how things go back togehter. Once your done, use the pics and post them to a website for future refference, and to show others. Like these from my '93. Its a CPI engine, but you get the idea.

 

Just noticed there is a Do-It-Yourself article on how to change the gaskets. Check it out.
https://blazerforum.com/m_47773/tm.htm

 

I’m in the same boat; I have to change out my intakes too. Picked up a set from Carquest at $94.83 which I know sounds pricy but it’s a Victor Reinz set which is supposed to be the best in the business.Supposedlyresolves the leaky issues that plague the GM 4.3, 5.0, and 5.7s. Just did my dads 5.7 in a 98 3/4 ton truck and let me tell youwhat aPITA! Luckily I’m small so was able to crawl on top of the engine to reach the distributor bolts. I was looking at myBlazer and itsgoanna bea much easier job!Doesn’t sit up so high and doesn’t sit so far back!Anyways like everyone else says you really don’t need special tools to fix it. You can practically take the whole thing apart armed with only a 10 and 13mm deep well socket! Plus your essentials- screwdrivers pliers etc etc. Good Luck!