3.1L 1995 intake manifold leakin

[mtufreerider]

i just blew mine and im jsut a poor college kid and wandering how involved changing one is?? i am quite the machanic when it comes to my snowmobiles, have top end rebuilds down to about 2hours (gaskets, rings, pistons, cylinder heads) is it as easy as just disconecting the intake, then pullin the intake manifolde scrapin the seal off and replacing it?? how hard is it to do the thermostate i know that is gone on the car too. any words of wisdom would be great!! thanks, MTU~

[StevePT]

The intake gaskets are a molded plastic piece with silicone seals fused to the plastic at the port openings. So there's no "scrapping" other than maybe the Upper intake gasket depending on if it had been replaced and the guy used gasket sealer. Those are just paper gaskets and dirt cheap to replace. They should come in a kit with the lower gaskets for around $50-60.

For the most part it's a straight-forward process and just requires patience and keeping track of all your parts. The thermostat is located under the throttle body.

Do a few searches for "3.1L manifold gasket replace" "3.1L coolant leaking" on this forum and you'll find some write-ups on all the steps to replace the gaskets.

[Yung Gp]

Hello im new here an love the feed back from other post but my 99 GP Se is over heatin as soon as i start it up i put coolant / water in it but it disappear this jus started it lookes like oil in the coolent or sumething brown ne one no what the hell im talkin bout let me know . Ant another thing how can i tell how much gas in my car is it a fuse a leveler that take $10 dollar worth of gas to full the hand stay on full unless im parked then it faeds to E whats goin on is it tim e to sell it I just got as an present ?

[richtazz]

Yung gp, you have the same intake leak that the original poster does. Get that intake gasket changed ASAP or you'll be doing a head gasket or complete engine rebuild due to the engine overheating from loss of coolant and/or coolant in the oil.

[bombergp]

Hey mtu, how many miles on your car now? I can't help/comment on the work, ain't had to do it yet.

[richtazz]

To answer the original post, this job is very DIY, for someone with your mechanical ability. Your three best friends are a clean/organized work area, a good in/lbs calibrated torque wrench, and a good repair manual with all related torque specifications and proceedures. I have done a few of these jobs, the 1st time it took me about 7 hours, I now have it down to about 4. That includes changing the t-stat (much easier with the intake out), the oil pump drive o-ring (common oil leak on the 3100 and easy to access with the upper plenum off) and cleaning the valve cover baffels of sludge.