wow, that rough part is going to be a pain to seal again... if that was mine I would be looking for a new LIM....

The surface of the LIM that faces the heads should be a nice machined surface for the gasket to lay against, dunno what happened to yours, but i've never seen a worse surface.

wow, thanks for the reassurance . i'ts been sealed like that for 14yrs and 151k miles now. i would like a new lim, and i may go that route if i cant get the studs out of this one.

Just offering my opinion, especially with the "other" problems with that one, might as well find a new one.

If its apart, and you can find another, I would do that. Then you know its "right." You could use lots of RTV and seal that one down, but someday when you want to put on a genV LIM its going to be a PITA to get off/clean surfaces etc.

That 'rough' spot looks like a defect in the casting itself. Looks like they had a low point that didn't get cast. I would look for a replacement LIM, all the others I've seen don't look like that. Plus you'll save yourself the hassle of removing those busted bolts.

local yard doesnt have one and the local dealer says only 3 gm places in the US has the manifold! (NY and IL)

guess i'll have to buy it from zzp, pay the $100 overnight fee and pay for the core too b/c i doubt they will take mine since its not usable in the condition it's in now. anyone got $300??

Did you try Morads.
They had the L32 Lim I needed in stock for not a lot of money. And they will do an overnight ship for you if you need it quick
Do you need their number?

Also, is there someone on here that has a LIM to send him and he can ship a LIM back to you when he gets one.
An exchange program.
Or one for sale.
Travis, do you still have the 2 LIM's you were trying to sell.?

off topic to finding a new LIM...

If you are going to port the runners, I would suggest that you have a look at where your gaskets sit in relation to the runners in the heads.
(take the gaskets, dry fit them against the heads, look where the edge sits around the intake runners)

That is, some gaskets match very well to the runners in the head, and can be used as the reference of where to port to, however some are bigger than the head ports by a bunch. If they are bigger and you port to them, there will be a fair amount of heat build up at the sharp edge where the head starts.

Since you have the LIM already off the car, you have the advantage to being able to measure each runner on the heads, as well as their spacing from each other, and duplicate that exactly on the cast passages on the LIM. Then you won't have it over ported at all, the flow will be as perfect as possible, and very little heat buildup.
(this is what the wife did when she ported her LIM and with the 3.5" pulley it purrs along smooth and cool with 0KR at all times)

...Of course, porting is one of those things thats more witchcraft than anything else, and the gains are hard to measure.


....oh and if you port match to the heads, make sure to "finger feel" the LIM into position by feeling where the LIM runners meet the head runners, when installing it. There is a bit of play back and forth even with the LIM bolts in place.

Or try car-part.com. You can buy a whole JY motor for a little more than $100 sometimes. Did you try Ed Morad??? He parts out a lot of L67s.

whomever i get it from would have to ship it next day air, and i dont want to pay $130 for just shipping.
I'll stick with trying to get the studs out. i got one drilled and ready for an extractor, but i need to run to AZ to buy one first.
I may have to re thread the holes and get larger screws, but w/e.
My last resort would be to take it somewhere that can weld aluminum and have them weld the housing on the lim.

As for the lim defect, it does look bad, but it only has to seal around the square for the coolant, and i have it pretty smooth now. with a little rtv i believe it will be fine.

I finally got the thing somewhat fixed. i went out and bought some new metal drill bits and a re-threader. tool cost $34, but it seems to have worked. the housing is on and sturdy, but i wont know if it holds out water until tomorrow and it's running.
Thank you for all the help!

She cranks up! No fuel leaks, no coolant leaks (so far) and the engine sounds good.
I did have to do a 2nd oil change b/c after a 10sec start up the oil looked like milk. i flushed out what i could and put new oil in. hope all is OK internally. I feel like i should do a 3rd oil change to get all of it out though. what do you guys think?

Oh, and thanks to everyone on here that chimed in to help me fix this. Thanks to Devin for driving me to AZ and lowes multiple times

-Matthew