looking at buying 97 5.0 mounty but exh leak and intake backfire??????

[19explorer]

First off, hello everybody, my name is jason. Ive owned over 20 5.0 stangs, an 04 cobra, etc., but i lost my job so im looking at this 97 5.o mountaineer with 74000 miles. Heres the deal im out of town visiting family and have 24 hours to decide. The truck seems to run good but theres a CEL and en exhaust leak on the passenger side, also if you blurp the throttle in park it will give a mild backfire through the intake. It also sounds like the cam synchronizer is mnaking its typical "belt noise".....I know cars but its this common? I dont want to buy a 5.0 with a burn or sticking valve, whatta ya think anything common causing these symptoms?
thanks i have 24 hours and if this is a cheap fix i will officially be in a 5.0 again...thank god
P.S. i posted this in the under hood section and got no reply....i really wanna buy this truck, just dont want to have to pull the heads, the intake backfire is the only thing that scares me.......broken manifold? good excuse for headers...bad cam sync is the usual, but intake backfire???

 

[19explorer]

i heard this pop in the airbox when doing light 1500-2000 throttle blips while trying to identify the exh leak...the guy is flyting out today....cant take the truck...just called and said hed take 2 grand.......help please!!!!!!!!!!

 

[19explorer]

never mind.....admin delete thread.....he sold it to someone else....