What Year Had the Revised Intake Gaskets?

[Greg Gore]

I just bought a 2003 Venture (from a bank; bank repo with 15,000 miles) and other than needing a lot of cleaning it runs and drives pretty good. I have always had Chrysler minivans in the past and this is my first GM van but I like this one better. Can anyone advise if my 3.4 is a candidate for the intake gaskets at some point? The build date on this one was August 2002. Is there anything about the 2003 Venture I should keep my eye on other than the usual maintenance with close attention to the coolant level because of the Dex-Cool?

Thanks, Greg

['97ventureowner]

The 'updated ' intake gaskets were introduced mid 2002. I replaced mineb in July 2002 with the new ones. It might be safe to say your van should have the updated gaskets since it's build date is after that. One other problem that was prevalent in earlier models is minor electrical problems. Items such as burned out bulbs, bad electrical boards for the taillights, and other electrical components that stop working such as window switches,power sliding door(s),etc. should probably have an eye kept on them. Later model years don't seem to have as many problems, ( isn't this similar to most GM cars, they seem to have fewer problems as the model years progress, then they discontinue that model LOL.)Maybe not enough time has elapsed to see what other gremlins affect the post 2002 models, but I'm sure if anything pops up, we'll be reading it here in the forums. If you have time you might want to scan through some of the past pages in this forum and look at the types of problems that keep rearing their ugly heads to the owners. You might even find some answers to questions you may have. Good luck.