[ford38v8]

Bill, I think Mr Cox was careful in describing his engine. From your pictures, it does indeed look like the intake valley is very clean, you say it does have a new clutch disc, he likely had no knowledge of the cracked pan rail, and as it could certainly have run on 3 cylinders to qualify the claim that it had been started, I'd say Mr Cox is probably at least as honest as any car salesman you've ever run across.
Im sure you've heard advice to the effect that if an engine is claimed to run but is not mounted on a test stand to prove that claim, then buy it for the core value. "You pays your money and you takes your chances" ...Caveat Emptor, sorry.