best intake gaskets to use 3.1

[neonnight34609]

i am going to be doing an intake gasket job on a 2002 grand prix 3.1 i have seen a few different kits out there i was leaning to the Dorman kit since it comes with new bolts and all the gaskets to do the job .. but i also read that fel-pro kit was new on the marking it is alittle more expensive .. what is the best way to go and are there any tricks on doing this .. i am having an ex Chevy dealer mechanic help me and he said he has done lots of them and can do it in about 3 1/2 hours .. any help will help thanks

[wafrederick]

Go with the Dorman kit,has every part for this job and you will never have to replace the intake gaskets ever again,made out of metal instead of plastic.Make sure the push rods are the correct spot,long and short.You will bend the valves if you put them in the wrong spot.

[BNaylor]

I prefer the FelPro gasket kit. The port gaskets are now metal too. You can reuse the UIM amd LIM bolts since they are not TTY (torque to yield). Just clean them up and apply low strength threadlocker.

For the 3100/3400 LIM gasket job see link below which is at our Tips & Maintenance forum.

Click here

[neonnight34609]

well we have the job 80% done .. it was not all that bad but i really dont like the fit of the dorman gaskets .. the tits where hard to keep in the alignment holes while lowering the intake. we did get it on and hope the gasket stayed put while we torqued down the intake .we used RIGHT STUFF on the block and hope that we used enough , i wanted to go under and over the legs of the intake gaskets but he claimed that was not needed just a thick line and some extra in the corners was enough .. I HOPE HE IS RIGHT . i will chime back in when its all finished either tomorrow night or wensday .. thanks again guys for the help this far

[neonnight34609]

just wanted to update everyone .. the job went well and there are no leaks . i thank everyone for there input on this . my friend the GM mechanic said he has done over 100 of them .. even know he was good i still seen where he tryed to cut a few corners and left off some brackets . i told him to slow down he was not on flat rate and that the job needed to be done right LOL . at the end there was no spare parts and everything was where it needed to be . all in all its not that bad of a job just alot of parts and digging to get where u need to be ..

[tblake]

Nice Work! Can you believe that job only pays about 2 hours of flat rate?

The first one I did took over 8 hours!

[doctorhrdware]

But it is always better to have spare parts, that way you will not need them in the future.

[wafrederick]

The dorman kit uses Felpro gaskets.I have done this job under 8 hours with air tools,taking me at least 3 to 4 hours to do.Another tip is preperation,make sure the gasket surfaces are cleaned very good.I use an air powered die grinder with a stainless steel cup brush not harming the aluminum gasket surfaces.GM says to use new bolts on the 3400s including the 3100s.

[neonnight34609]

flat rate is 5 1/2 hours for the lower intakes .. it took us about that long we did it in 2 nights since i wanted the lower intake to dry well before adding fluids so we got that all torqued in place the first night and finished up on the second ..

Originally Posted by tblake

Nice Work! Can you believe that job only pays about 2 hours of flat rate?

The first one I did took over 8 hours!

[tblake]

Originally Posted by neonnight34609

flat rate is 5 1/2 hours for the lower intakes .. it took us about that long we did it in 2 nights since i wanted the lower intake to dry well before adding fluids so we got that all torqued in place the first night and finished up on the second ..

5.5? I'm getting screwed!