help with intake manifold gasket and flashing cel

Vehicle year and model would be useful.

I hope you have an ODB-II (1996 or later vehicles) therefore you can have it scanned by just about any shop or even buy a scanner for a few hundred dollars. If it's pre-ODB-II you need to take it to a dealer (how many are left these days) and have it scanned. If the CEL (aka Malfunction Indicator Lamp - MIL) is flashing it means to shut down immediately because damage to the engine is likely.

Some errors won't illuminate the MIL until the next time you start the vehicle and the error is still present.

woops... forgot to put that..

on the obdII thing, if i'm not supposed to drive it because of a flashing CEL, how am i supposed to get the codes checked? i wonder if autozone rents those out. i know they rent other tools out.

I finally found my Haynes manual. Did you look for oil and coolant leaks around the intake manifold? If there is an oil leak it could be causing the engine to run rough as well as suck your oil out pretty fast, though that would show up as low oil pressure and/or the oil light coming on.

Flashing CEL usually means misfire so severe that you risk damaging the catalyzer thingy. I would double-check for intake manifold gasket leaks as this is the most likely cause.

Peter