1993 F-150

[JohnM911]

This guy is willing to sell me a 1993 Ford F-150 with 120,000 miles on it for 1,000 $. He said the only problem with it is it burns oil other then that everything seems fine. Except it could use a paint job and a new tailgate. Do you guys think this would be a good deal? What do you think is causing the engine to burn oil should i even bother with buying this and trying to fix it?
Thanks
-John

[Torch]

How much oil is it burning?
Is the exhaust blue?
If so how blue, little wisps of blue or thick clouds of blue?
Can you smell it burning?

Have him take it some place to have a multi-point inspection, make sure they know about it burning oil, if he is unwilling to do that do not buy it.

Burning oil can be caused by many things, it may be that he is just using very cheap oil or the wrong grade of oil, the pistons may have worn out rings, valve guides could be shot, or the head gasket could be blown.

Without a thorough inspection/testing it is hard to say what is causing it, correcting the problem may not be something you want to deal with, personally I would just pass on it.

[JohnM911]

What does it mean if the exhaust is blue? or if you can smell it burning oil?
just wondering so i can ask the guy these questions and make my decision.

[Torch]

If the exhaust is visibly blue or blue/gray or billowing clouds of blue smoke that means that oil is entering the cylinders mixing with the gasoline and being burned.

Or if you put your nose up to the tail pipe and can smell oil it is being burned as well, if you can see or smell oil coming out of the tail pipe I would not buy the truck unless you plan on tearing the engine apart.