I have a blown head gasket. i need to know if i need to remove the air intake to take off the head to get to the gasket. thank you

Aaron, there has been a few problems with head gaskets, the bigger problem was with the intake manifold gaskets.
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Intake Manifold Gaskets May Leak Coolant or Engine Oil Buick Century...

Coolant Leaking From Intake Gaskets GM 3 1L 3 4L

Thread how do tell if my headgasket or intake gasket is bad

1997 Buick Century Blown Head Gasket

Advice of Haynes manual is worth it . But to answer your Intake ?? if it is intake manifold gasket there are 3 of them . The upper planium is the Aluminum part the Air intake hose attaches TOO - a common GM loss of pressure gasket causing rough idle / drivebility issues . Then # 2 gasket is lower intake mounting to antifreeze carrying Intake manifold same air pressure loss. ## 3 is Intake base mounting to cylinder heads and has coolant carried in it to keep air / fuel mix charge cold . Now U see you did not remove cylinder heads so the Timing belts or heads not have been disturbed = no need to set timing . Timing is set by computer via sensors and Belt Load / Tension under Rpm . If you have loose / worn out Timing belt then engine will rattle when applying power in gear with foot on brake - it may stall under test I described and not want to restart - That would be reason to Look at resetting Timing issues . Good luck .

One of the problems could be an internal leakage in the engine, meaning one of the seals or gaskets are bad which are allowing the oil to make it through the intake up the air chamber through the throttle and into the air filter. Could be a blown head gasket most likely, need a bit more infromation about the car to truly be sure.

If it is the result of blown head gaskets, you will need to remove the intake manifold, since you will need to remove it any way to replace the head gaskets, while you have the intake off just pour the water out.
then you may want to blow the moisture out with compressed air
hope this helps

To replace a blown head gasket requires a lot of labor on this vehicle. Its a v6, meaning you have 2 head gaskets to replace instead of just 1. It requires removing air cleaner, disconnecting battery, removing most of the accessories that are belt driven, removing the intake manifold, egr valve and tubing, exhaust manifold on both sides of engine, timing belt removal, valve covers, and a few smaller items. After removing everything on top of the engine, you'll have access to the cylinder head bolts. Removing them will allow you to lift off the cylinder heads. Before replacing the gaskets, you must send them to a machine shop to have the gasket surface milled true flat again. They must also be inspected for cracks (which will sometimes happen with blown head gaskets) which would render them useless.
If this is a vehicle you really like, perhaps consider investing in a quality used motor. Its less labor intensive, less repeat repair, and you may come out saving a few bucks.

Remove everything down to the intake, Remove intake then remove head remove old head gasket place high temp. sylacone and let stand for a few min's till tacky. Then put new gasket on and start with the corners then add other bolts. Thghten down evenly. replace intake on ect.
This is really hard without knowing what all is in your vechicle but this is what you need to do to replace, A extra tip you might try a bottle of liquid glass , This works if not to bad yet.
Good luck to you.

The head gasket goes between the block and the head, and seals the combustion process, and cooling water, and (if oil is pumped obove the heads to valve components) oil pressure.

Intake gaskets seal between the intake manifold and the head, and seal against intake vacuum, and in many cases, coolant.

A badly blown head gasket will so destroy compression in the cylinder that you can hear uneven cranking as that cylinder comes up on compression, kind of a “whir, whir, WHIR, whir, whir, WHIR, whir” with the capitalized whir being the engine spinning much faster due to no compression holding the starter back.

You will never be able to hear a problem with an intake manifold gasket until the engine actually starts to fire and/or run.

u have a blown head gasket

What steps have you taken to rule out a blown head gasket?

Do you know how to check for one?

make sure to check the fiting that goes on the heater hose, because they have very coming problem with that, and actually if the leak is between the head and the intake what you need to replace is the lower intake gasket and not the head gasket,
since the head gasket is located between the head and the engine block. check the fiting i'm talking about and let me know how things goes, it might save you a headache