well, i believe most people call it preventative maintenance. mine was hardly leaking, but once you take it out and see how brittle the plastic gasket gets, it gives you alot of piece of mind, and its not much more work.

 

how could it be preventive maintenance if it never becomes a problem?


personally, i'll wait 'til it's an issue. then i'll clean out the black crap inside the lower intake as well.

 

no, I had a blown head gasket to replace!

 

because it prevents it from happening? if i already had the top of the engine off, its only an extra hour and 100 bucks and could save bearings if you dont check it often.

 

I know quite a few of the mechanics in this area. I can't think of a single one of them that would take on that job unless the customer agreed to have both the upper and lower gaskets replaced. If they did do the job and the customer didn't want the lower gaskets replaced it would be noted on the service order that it was offered and refused by the customer. When the lower gasket starts to leak all the customer is going to remember is that they had an intake gasket replaced, and now it is leaking. In the customer's eyes it will be the shop's/mechanic's responsibility to repair it. They probably won't entertain the idea of having to pay for it, even though they should. Most customers won't see the other side of things. So, you'd probably end up with a pissed off customer that will be more than happy to spread their story of discontent with anyone willing to listen. If I was that deep into the engine I wouldn't think twice about replacing the lower gaskets, but I see an ounce of prevention being of far greater value than a pound of cure.

 

I have to agree with blazinloud on this one. If the upper plenum is already off, it isn't that much more to pull the LIM. And with the crappy choice of materials for the original style LIM gasket carrier, it isn't a matter of 'if', but 'when' the gaskets will leak; regardless of red or green coolant. If you change them out with the updated metal framed gaskets, it will vastly improve the reliability of that gasket set.

If you do take the LIM off, measure the distributor hole for me please. With a set of vernier calipers if you have access to them.