Is this a good deal?

[manlystanley]

I recently saw a deal near me for a 2000 F150 XLT (with 4x4), 127 k miles for $3500. Its so cheap because the owner says its got a blown head gasket. Is this a good deal, if I do the work myself? What should I look for? How can a tell the difference between a blown head gasket or a cracked block??


Thanks,
Stan

[Torch]

Its hard to say if this is a good deal or not...

What does this truck "Blue Book" for?

Is the cost the owner is selling for plus the cost of repairs (everything above the engine block is going to need a new gasket) going to be higher than what it Blue Books for?

The milage (as far as American cars go) is kind of high for a seven year old car, in another 30 to 40k miles the engine may need to be overhauled anyway depending on how well the previous owner has taken care of it.

It is hard to tell the difference between an cracked (something) and a blown head gasket until you actually unbolt everything and take the engine apart, sometimes the head gasket actually did fail and that was all that was wrong. Other times some idiot droped a little tiny part down the intake manifold that ended up melting through a piston. I would start with a compression test and see what that tells you.