After a TON of reading and research on here, I've decided it's finally time to tackle the UIM/LIM project. Noticed earlier today that I've got what appears to be oil seeping from the LIM gasket area right beneath one of the coolant elbows. The moisture does not appear to be coolant, but rather oil.
It can also be seen on the other side (driver's side) of the engine below the EGR (possibly leaking from UIM?)
I figure after 231,000 miles they've earned a change. Had the LIM gasket replaced just before I bought the car in 2003 at 44,000 miles but don't know if they used another plastic one (I suspect they did) or the better one.
I just ordered the Dorman Upgraded UIM kit and a Fel Pro LIM gasket from RockAuto. Total cost was $115.00... not bad. I paid extra for 2-day deilvery (jacked the price up to $150.00!) because I have to have them by Monday. Got a trip coming up next weekend and I will only have Tuesday to do the job. I will try to post some pics of the process even though Bill Boost and maybe a few others have already done a great job of documenting this task. Been thinking reeeeeaaaaallll hard about blocking off the coolant passages to the TB (like Bill Boost did) but I'm not sure how long this job is going to take and time will be critical. We'll see. I've seen others do this job on here, and I figure it's my turn to just jump in there and do it. We'll see how it goes.
Sorry about the orientation of the pics... they should each be rotated 90* to the left.