...and the estimates nearly gave me a heart attack. Sad that my first car had to have so many problems, but this will give me a chance to learn some serious DYI skills, something my generation is in serious lack of.

Right now my main issue is that I'm smelling gasoline when i drive the car around, and it's pretty strong which indicates that there's a leak somewhere. What do you guys recommend I do?

 

Hey Nick, welcome the forum, always nice to have a fellow Canadian around.
I looked around and maybe I missed it, but what size is your engine ?
It will be a 4 or a V6, the V6's were 3 and 4 litre.

Repair estimates like that really burn me ! They tack on 40 bucks for miscellaneous and brake light/license plate bulb, 38 bucks. Are they in sane !

I gather from the estimate that they think the fuel leak is coming from the intake manifold gasket ???

How is it running, is the CEL (check engine light) lit up ?

Most thing on that list can be done yourself, I suppose if you've never done it before, but no time like the present to learn or bring a wheel barrow full of cash.

 

Hey! Thats the thing- no CEL light on at all, the truck runs relatively smoothly (Rear tires are old and need replacing) but she starts perfectly fine, and the only thing im concerned about is the (what they suspect) fuel leak. I genuinely feel like they were just trying to rip me off! And I believe its the 4.0L 6 Cyl.

What part of Canada are you from man?

 

If it runs well with good gas millage and no CEL, then that's a good thing.
All you/we have to do is find your fuel leakage problem.

Is the gas smell generally coming from the engine bay or further back ?
If it's that gassy, there maybe a wet area somewhere.

The fuel lines in these trucks have many unions, maybe one of them is leaking near the engine bay.

If the intake manifold was leaking gas or had a crack in it, one would think the truck would run like crap.

My truck is a 3 litre so it differs quite a bit in many places, but there may be a fuel regulator on the fuel rail with a vacuum line coming out of it.
If the fuel regulator fails the leaking fuel gets sucked in through the vacuum line rather then all over the engine bay.
It ends up in the intake manifold, where that may be your source for the smell.
If you pull the vacuum line off, there should be no fuel there.

For the engine size look at the plastic cam covers, it should have the engine size there _ mine says 3 Liter.

Anyways, I live in the small town of Lake Cowichan in B.C.