Leaky intake gasket?

Are these common on the 4.3 motors? It's not my van, it's a family member's, but she's had it at the dealership 4 times in the past year for no heat and other related problems. The first time, they changed the thermostat, said it was fixed and a couple months later, it happened again. They changed it again under the warranty. Then the heat went out again, they said it was the heater control valve, they cleaned it and flushed the system, supposedly. That was about a month ago, a few days ago I poking around because the heat stopped, again. They took it back to the dealership and they now say it's the intake gasket leaking. They want $600 to fix the leak, so she brought it home for me to look at. I noticed an antifreeze smell, whenever it's running that wasn't there before it was taken to the dealership. I got the intake gasket set from work and I want to tackle this job, but I was told by a gentleman who does alot of side work on other people's car's that he'd 'let a professional do it" because of the difficulty of the job, then offered to do it for $400 plus parts...

Basically he said you've gotta losen the rocker arms and pull the pushrods out because the pushrods go through the intake gasket? I took the intake gaskets out of the box and don't see any pushrod holes... The only holes I see are bolt and intake runner holes. He also said that I'd have to remove most of the front dress and the radiator, etc. So I'm curious if he was just trying to scare me into getting him to do the job or if he was serious. I've got space to do it, but if it were to take over an afternoon, it's going to be pushing it


Also, how the heck do I get the doghouse off ?! :banghead:

You will have to remove one or both valve covers to remove the intake, just for extra clearance (the engine is a SBC design..the pushrods go through the heads)..Mr. sidejob was just trying to drum up some busness.
It is not an easy job by any means..the intake will have to come out through the interior of the van.
What year is the van..makes a difference on the engine cover removal

It is likely that the engine coolant loss was the original problem. If this is a Vortec engine, the intake leak is characteristic of these engines. Ray

It's a 96 Safari conversion van and it's a Vortec motor. What adverse side effects does the coolant leak cause? Right now I haven't noticed any coolant in the oil or vice versa, is it possible that it's just leaking into the intake runners or just out of the intake and not into the motor?

This is my 1st Post in here. I just found this place.

I assume that with the passage of time this has been fixed by now.
I had the exact same problem w/my van, same year. ('96 'W' Engine)...Mine also leaked OUT not INTO the engine. Leaking for a very long time. (We tried tightenening the rear manifold bolts 1st. That's where it looked like the leak was, but it only leaked more later)
I kept the coolant levels up constantly in the resevoir...Very Important! (The orange stuff gunks up if air gets into the system)
My husband & I did this job together in our driveway. It was by no means simple. There's so much stuff to be removed...
With the '96 one of the manifold bolts is so tight under the power steering bracket you cannot access it. (The manuals don't tell you this! Not even the M/L) So this also has to be removed. We DID NOT have to remove the valve covers.

After we got the manifold off, I could see the leak was caused by a crack in the gasket corner where the silicone meets it, there was also a gap in the silicone. It was on the front driver side. The coolant ran along the valve cover on the left to the rear of the engine, making it appear the leak was in the rear.
This is not an easy 'DYI' job.
I got a real lot of help/advice from another forum just for Astros & Safaris which was excellent. We needed it. Search around & you will find it. Full of good people.

Hey, I am impressed that you are willing to get in there and work! I teach high school and quite a few guys won't even try to do basic maint. work!

Keep up the effort--there is never a dumb question is asked seriously!!