I just bought this truck for $250. It's the old body style and has a 4.8L.

Has a miss on cyl. 3 and a slight vacuum on the oil fill cap. Truck smokes quite a bit on startup in the morning. This makes me think it's an intake leak.

Anything else about these things I should keep an eye out for? It has around 220K on it.

I'm a Ford Diesel tech and have been out of the gas game for a long time.

Thanks. William

 

the only thing that can leak on the intake is vacuum, why $250? I'd be very skeptical that low of a price something is up. I'd for sure be doing a combustion gas test on the cooling system

 

Lol. Long story on the price. Let's just say it's was a retired company truck and I know a few people.

Headgasket was my next thought. Easy enough to test.

I guess that means these don't have coolant passages running through the intake anymore?

 

I don't remember the proper name for it but theres just a crossover tube for coolant, the intake plenum has nothing but air through it. If theres no ticking or noise then first thing I'd check is head gaskets.