Ok gonna start with the heater.
I replaced heater core due to having no heat and fogging of winshield. I still have no heat. It does not have an actuator motor on hvac box. i have manually moved the control to core due to cable being off.. i cannot get any heat. Ideas?
Next is oul consumption and smoke.
Compression check shows 100 to 120 lowest being 100 on #6 and #8. Plugs were old so I replaces and the new ones show nothing particular. It is losing some coolant somewere. It is not bubbling back, no oil and water mix in oil to be seen. I have come to conclusions that it is very possibly a head gasket. This truck does not run hot, does not miss. All in all runs good for 291431 miles. I need all advice I can get before I tackle this head gasket replacement. I have posted on here before and alot of helpful info. Xome on gear heads let's here what you got to say

 

Most likely it's not a head gasket but cracked heads which is a common issue on the 2nd gens

 

Is there anyway to check head to see if cracked without removing it?

 

Not that I'm aware of

 

You could run a leak down test and see if any air is escaping into #8.

 

Get a tester and put it on your radiator fill. This will show if combustion gasses are getting into the cooling system. It won't tell you if a head is cracked or not but it will tell you if you have a blown head gasket. Low pressure on #6 and 8 doesn't look good.

 

Leak down test (a compression spark plug fitting and an air hose) will show you want you need to know. Put each cylinder your going to test at TDC and make sure that the valves are closed.

Look for bubbles in the rad or air leaking from the exhaust/intake/crank case or any where. If the piston is at TDC, the cylinder should seal-up with only minor leakage. Some measure the cylinder pressure loss to get the overall condition, but I'm sure you wont need to be that fancy. It will be obvious leakage with that low of compression.