Scenario: Looking for a 99 tahoe. Found a nice one (1 owner, an old lady who only drove it to church and back, lol joking). Wanto to buy it but I know the Intake Manifold Gasket issue on this thing.

Problem: the truck has 100,000 (low considering whts out there.). But 100k is a rough one to call. (if it were 160k I'd know it had to have been done at some point but 100k is so young it may not have been done yet.)

Question: Is there a way to tell if the gasket has been replaced yet. Yes I know a bad one will leak. But the gasket I'm scared of, is the one that works now and will leak 2 months from now. I'm hoping that the repair has already been done. How can I tell (checking records tommorow, but no promises. I Want physical evidence or some type of fool-proof test)

These things can and will go at any time. As far as knowing from a visual inspection it is hard to tell. A few clues to look for would be: witness marks on the lower intake bolts, fresh looking black RTV between the lower intake and block (as seen below the EGR valve), and a general clean looking appearance of the top half of the motor.

It really is hard to tell from a visual inspection. If you like it enough, you may just want to budget the replacement in. $100 if you can do it and upwards of $600 if done by someone else.

Chris