Leaking Coolant

[BonnevilleSE2000]

Hello everyone, I was wondering how much longer my 00' Bonneville will last with a very small coolant leak. The question is.... Should I replace the LIM gaskets and the UIM gasket (or the entire upper manifold?) I have also recently noticed a thumb sized puddle of oil like substance on the top of my engine next to the UIM... Thank you!

[nubuilder]

If you think the LIM gasket or UIM gasket are leaking, do them both now. I would replace the UIM also. No sense risking your engine or having your intake melt.

The oil could very well be your valve covers. Might as well do those at the same time too.

[redzmonte]

I would also do suggest UIM, LIM gaskets and intake manifold. rockauto (use club code for 5% 0ff) and ZZP and other venders have replacement manfiolds pretty cheap. Dont forget the coolant elbows (plastic or Aluminum ones should work fine)

S

[bowms76]

I just replaced the plenum, upper and lower manifold gaskets and coolant elbows this weekend. The cost for these parts were about $150 from Rock Auto. I also replaced spark plugs and wires while I was in there. I replaced the valve cover gaskets through a local business and they charged me $300. They wanted to charge me $750 for the gasket, elbow and plenum fix. All of mine were original parts that were put on at the factory.

[Valkuma]

dont bother with the plastic ones...mine recently cracked and I could tell the job had been done once before with the cheapo dorman plastic ones.

HONESTLY SPRING THE EXTRA DOLLAR FOR THE ALUMINUM COOLANT ELBOWS!

[nubuilder]

I really thought the $11 for the aluminum elbows from Intense was a great price....

[Valkuma]

I really thought the $11 for the aluminum elbows from Intense was a great price....

I think the ones from Rock Auto were 3$.. not sure.

Either way it was 1.50 for the plastic and 3$ for the aluminum.. much better choice.