Hey Rob. Just wanted to make you feel really welcome. I do this on a dozen or so forums and work full time. Met quite a few interesting people on these forums. Thanks for accepting the friend request. Tom

If you take your time and have the tools, it should be able to be done in a day. I would not bother with the head gaskets if you are not having any problems. Just replace the cooling tube and the intake gaskets. Be sure to drain the antifreeze complately. leave the spark plugs in place to keep coolant out of the cylinders. Replace them when the coolant is completely cleaned off. Good luck and you should have many more miles in your ride.

Thanks for your response Tom. I like doing mechanical work so I think I'll go the distance in removing the intake manifold to do the job. On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is the task and what kind of problems do you think I'll encounter with this vehicle which has 200k miles. Are there any other issues that I should address once I'm in it this far, or maybe going in a little further and replacing head gaskets? Thanks, Rob