98 intrigue intake manifold blew up. Any Help

Started my 98 intrigue and the intake manifold blew up in a thousand pieces right after starting. any ideas what cause it

The 3800 series II is prone to manifold failure, although I havent heard/seen many fail quite that catastrophically.


To make a long story short, they have issues with the manifold itself cracking, etc, as well as both the upper and lower manifold gaskets.


Personally Id change out the lower gaskets, as well as the upper ones and get a new upper manifold. Get the newest gasket designed with metal built into it, they still have been known to fail, but not as much.


There is always the possibility it was caused by a backfire I suppose. How was the car doing before this happened?

Not knowing much about the inner workings of the engine, what potentially can be damaged with a catastrophic failure such as this? Based on the OP post, it sounds like the engine repairs may be more than the car is worth. We are talking about an 11 year old car...

I would say it's a good time to think supercharger on that 3.8L The Dorman UIM is always an option also.

If you search the Internet you will see many people with these plastic 3800 UIM failures. Fix it and your Intrigue may last another 10yrs+

Option 1: sell intrigue since there are great deals on cars now
#2 replace UIM
#3 turn your doggy 3.8 into the real deal, +Supercharger --> Why let all the bearing throwing - connecting rod breaking LX5s have all the fun.
#4 buy another cheap <$3k non-warranty Intrigue.

Its not as easy as just throwing on a supercharger, theres more that has to be done than just that.

Not to mention if you dont do anything to the transmission, its likely youll be replacing that soon.

The LX5 isnt tremendously more fun btw, maybe just a scosche.

at the top of this forum there is a link that says: attention dog 3800 series 2 owners ---> you need to look there.
Then Goto Costco and get the BFG premier touring tires (old control plus m80s) when you go out and get your metal 3800s2 plenum.

Of course if your engine was the LX5 you would already have a metal plenum and a catastrophic plenum failure wouldn't even be a issue (must get all the damage out of engine before rebuild -but hey it's (mostly) only plastic.

Redeeming 3800 quality: this engine will most likely outlast any LX5 or just about any other engine. Very reliable piece of iron.