# Product worthiness **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** buick, century\ **Created:** [January 23, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/product-worthiness/70608 "2012-01-23T20:54:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PJB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@PJB](https://community.cartalk.com/u/PJB)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/product-worthiness/70608/1 "2012-01-23T20:54:50Z")
I have 97 Buick century with 91000 miles and it weeps from the head gasket. I heard this engine was notorious for this problem but to do a head gasket job for complete repair seems a bit steep considering the value of the car itself. Some say put Stop Leak in the cooling system. Is this stuff any good or am I just prolonging the inevitable? ---
**Author:** ![GSragtop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7c8e57/32.png) [@GSragtop](https://community.cartalk.com/u/GSragtop)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/product-worthiness/70608/2 "2012-01-23T21:00:49Z")
If you are going to use a additive to stop the leak I highly advise blue devil, its $$$ but it works. With that said I dont know if it will fix your type of leak, as its not on the combustion side of the gasket… Maybe someone else can chime in… ---
**Author:** ![MikeInNH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a587f6/32.png) [@MikeInNH](https://community.cartalk.com/u/MikeInNH)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/product-worthiness/70608/3 "2012-01-23T21:06:27Z")
Are you sure it’s the head gasket and not the Intake Manifold??? ---
**Author:** ![UncleTurbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9a140/32.png) [@UncleTurbo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/UncleTurbo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/product-worthiness/70608/4 "2012-01-23T21:14:10Z")
I don’t care for stop leak additives. They may clog up some areas of the cooling system. How bad is the “weep”? On an older car adding a bit of coolant now and again is cheap. One thing to do would be to retorque the head back to specs to see if that has any effect. ---
**Author:** ![Docnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Docnick](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Docnick)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/product-worthiness/70608/5 "2012-01-23T21:22:44Z")
As Mike says, are you sure it’s a head gasket and not an intake manifold gasket? Intake manifold gaskets are not too expensive to fix; I had one done on a V8 Chevy for $165 or so. That was a while back but you should not spend more than about $200. If it’s a head gasket, I’d go with a leak stopper in view of the car’s age. ---
**Author:** ![PJB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@PJB](https://community.cartalk.com/u/PJB)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/product-worthiness/70608/6 "2012-01-23T21:55:08Z")
I’m sorry. Yes it is the intake side. DUH. My shop said to tear down you might as well do a tune up, water pump etc, and we are talking 800 to 1000. ---
**Author:** ![Caddyman](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/caddyman/32/23_2.png) [@Caddyman](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Caddyman)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/product-worthiness/70608/7 "2012-01-23T22:07:44Z")
GENTLY torque down the manifold bolts and try some stop-leak. You have nothing to lose… ---
**Author:** ![GSragtop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7c8e57/32.png) [@GSragtop](https://community.cartalk.com/u/GSragtop)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/product-worthiness/70608/8 "2012-01-24T00:40:15Z")
I just replaced the intake on my Buick about 2 months ago, cost $90 for the manifold with gaskets and took half a day, its not a hard job if you have any skills turning a wrench.