Last fall my '01 started leaving yellowish water puddles in my driveway so it's been parked since. I took it to the shop last year and they say it's the head gasket, but i see that a major issue with the 3.4 is the intake manifold gasket. I drove it last year a few times not knowing what was wrong. It's never run hot at all and never blew white smoke like most cars do when the head gasket goes. What are the odds of it being the intake manifold gasket instead of the head gasket and which job is more expensive minus the parts? They told me $600 to do the 6 hour job.

 

I have a 02 chev monte carlo... Its ben running fine untill i turned on my A/C the other day and didnt notice the gauge almost inn the red line HOT. I continue driving 10min to make it home then the red light HOT COOLANT came on... I poured coolant inside and got it to crank... Still ran hot... I then noticed white smoke out the back exhaust pipe few ppl told me bad head gasket... Auto part store told me blue devil will do the trick... It stopped smoking (A+) But Still wanted to run hot while ideling we changed thermostat after that. When idle its 2line's above the halfway line... So i test drove around the block to open new thermostat (Hot Coolant) light AGAIN!!!!! PLZ HELP

 

You can't just put a liquid band-aid on the car. Sounds like you are introducing air into the coolant system, probably by a busted head gasket. When it's running hot, can you leave the car on, and open the bleed valves? Does air come out for a while?

If it's also just getting hot while idling, you might have a water pump that went bad.