3400 engine lower intake gasket

['03 Grand-Am GT]

Hi, just bought an 03 Grand-Am GT about a month ago and been doing some research about the frequent encountered problems with the 3400 engine and noticed many lower intake gasket failliure issues. The car has 125 000 kms (roughly 75 000-80 000 mi) and runs great. My concern is, when should I expect the gaskets to fail and is it really an ''sure failliure'' thing that I should be expecting down the road or is it possible to go for over 200 000 kms (160 000 mi) without having any problems? Body wise, the car looks like new, has no rust and has been rust treated so I kinda figure the previous owner had taken good care of it body wise and mechanical wise. I will put a lot of highway miles on the car in the next 2-3 years.
Thankyou in advance

 

[melsg5]

how do you know it didnt already fail in the past and was replaced, would be surprised if after 160K it would fail now

 

['03 Grand-Am GT]

Well IF in fact it had already been done, then it's one less thing to worry about. So that would mean that it's been replaced well under 75k mi...

 

[5speed406]

Our 2000 has been done twice, once by the previous owner and again by me. I did it at 200k miles. Car has 226k miles on it now. If the gasket goes bad and dumps water into the lifter valley it could ruin all the bearings in the engine, we were lucky ours leaked to the outside. Other than that and a few minor repairs owning it has been very trouble free.

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['03 Grand-Am GT]

Well, I guess we'll see... I owned a 92 Cavalier RS with the older generation 3.1 V6. Had 50k on it when I bought it and got rid of it at 175k and never put a dime on that engine besides regular tune-ups and oil changes and still purred like it was new. Everybody told me that I'd be needing either an engine rebuild or intake and head gasket job as if it was a sure thing. So maybe it's one of those 50/50 deals. Anyways thanks for the feedbacks and keep them coming if you got more info. Well appreciated