Another Venture intake gasket Q&A

[jparouty]

I am another victim of my 3.4L V6 in a 99 venture. I've had this issue for a while but about 3 weeks ago, I discovered a significant puddle of collant on the driveway. I took it in to the local (chain) shop for and they replaced the water pump. they also mentioned the intake gasket leak but I didn't want to pay the $600 to fix that. This vehicle has about 95K miles. A few days after that was done, I was driving along and the engine started heating seriously. I was able to get to the same shop by running the heat and going easy on the throttle, while keeping the temp needle just under the red. They pressurized the cooling system and found no leaks. They theorized a possible air bubble in the system. I took it back and it hasn't done it again. Then yesterday my wife got home and the van proceeded to dump what looked like the complete contents of the cooling system onto my driveway. So we took it back again, and he first indicated a bypass hose and ruptured, but today he's saying that the lower intake gasket is the culprit. WTF!! extortion or reality??

my question is how does the intake gasket create such a sudden dump of coolant? it was actually spraying some coolant on the inside of the hood...I am bit (to say the least) wary to have them fix it, since I have been there 3 times in the last week for this.

Should I replace the gasket myself and put this baby on the market??

[broughy84]

Don't do this your self I did on ours and it had been problems ever since. You need the intake gasket changed before it starts leaking into the oil, I let our go and now our lifters are loud as hell, and I had to replace the main bearings. I would NOT drive it, have it towed or pull it to another shop and have a second opinion. This is going to be an expensive fix, sorry.

[Justtoolin]

I have a 97 and had the front intake gasket go, luckily I had 200 miles left on my warrenty and it was covered otherwise it would have been over 1000 to fix. if the head gets warped may be even more.

So I also suggest you have it towed and get it fixed profesonally

[richtazz]

IF you are mechanically inclined, it's not that difficult of a fix. Use a quality brand name gasket (Fel-Pro would be my choice) and follow the recommended torque sequence and torque specs. My girlfriend's gasket went out at about 105k, and I fixed it myself in about 3-4 hours, and it has 175k now with no further problems. The reason an intake leak can puke out so much fluid, is that air gets into the system turns to highly pressurized steam, and forces the coolant out the overflow or past any weak clamps/hoses in the system. Take your van to a different garage if you don't want to tackle the job yourself, as I seriously doubt the competency of the first garage you sent it to.