oh, honestly I missed the part where you said it was on the intake. honestly I was thinking about something like a heater valve or a plastic t for the coolant, you know something in the line. I see what your saying now the whole intake would have to be replaced and yes that is definitely not something I could do on the side of the road...well I probably could but I would not want to.
I did look at the car today, its a 98 and it has 145K on it, it drives pretty good and they current owners drive it quite a bit with quite a few 2-3 hours trips on it. they say it hasn't given them any problems and they think its solid, after driving it there area a few things, it wanders a tiny bit, it pulls a little under braking and there may be little vibration around 70, but really all in all it seems good for a 10 year old car.