Hi,
My 88' IROC Camaro's intake manifold gasket is leaking a bit so I took it to the mechanic and he's saying it'll be about 700$ to fix it with about 5.5 hours of labor involved. Am I being ripped off or is this a fair price? Should I just try to do it myself?
Thanks

 

Do it yourself . It’s not that hard of a job.

 

Do it yourself.

 

Easy job. Take your time and press on. Total upper gasket set is under 40 bucks.

 

Thank you, that's what I'm thinking I'm going to do. Does anyone know if the bolts are easy to snap?

 

Never snapped an intake manifold bolt.

 

Ok, thank you all for the information it may have saved me near 700$

 

bolts wont snap but the intake itself is usually as soft as dogsh!t. Buy the gaskets and a torque wrench, some rtv and look for the torquing order in the manual.

 

While you are in there get a few cans of carb cleaner and clean the crap out of the manifold

 

I have. And stripped the torx bolts (if TPI)

-- Joe

 

OK I'm pretty sure I know all the steps, but I'll have to get some carb cleaner. I do have a TPI so I guess it's likely to strip some of the bolts?

 

They can strip if they are super tight. You might want to invest in a nice t40 socket. look on eBay for a snap-on. i have had to use a chisel to remove a few stripped bolts.

 

I would warm the engine up before you try to remove the runner bolts,the intake will hold the heat for a while and it will aid in bolt removal.

 

your biggest concern will be stripping out the torx head bolts on the base of the runners. once they're stripped, theres no easy way of accessing them to get them out.

clean all of the crud out of the torx head bolts with a small pick to ensure that the torx head socket seats fully into the fastener. apply firm steady pressure and they will break loose