Hubby and I bought a 1990 Ranger, 4cylinder 2.3L 8 spark plugs. Ran like a dream for 24 hours, now it won't start. We've changed both coil packs, checked spark plugs, changed wires, cleaned fuel injectors, changed fuel filter, new crankshaft position sensor, new egr valve and sensor. I'm probably forgetting something. The guy we bought it from said he changed the timing belt. but we have an issue. We are trying to check the timing, make sure that it's right, and the plastic outer cover has had the piece that tells you where TDC, and other things like that has been broken off. We need to know how to check the timing without that cover. I can't even find a replacement online for it, and I've been looking.

EGR valve was extremely clogged. Since it won't start, not even with starter fluid, we tried a compression test (on a extremely cold engine), and it's only getting 30psi on all cylinders. No oil leaks or anything like that. Could the timing be off? It wanted to start, almost did but then died. OBD1 reader says that the system is completely fine nothing wrong there. Another question is could it be the starter motor not spinning fast enough to turn engine over? We are at a loss as to what to check next. It didn't smoke, no burnt oil, no oil leaks, all fuses and relays are fine, battery is charged, engine is not seized based on the fact that it does turn by hand, gas is getting to the engine but it just wont fire up. Anybody got any ideas on this?

 

I would love to know the answer to this... Reason for joining here. My '95 Mazda B2300 is doing the exact same thing. I can't find an answer anywhere.

 

Welcome to the forum, both of you

Missed this first time around

With any no start first thing to do is a 50/50 test
Remove intake's air tube
open throttle and spray gasoline or Quick Start(ether) into the intake
Crank engine
If it starts then dies, fuel delivery is the problem
If it doesn't start, then spark or compression is the issue
50/50

All Engines need compression, especially when cold, to heat up the gasoline so it vaporizes, liquid gasoline won't ignite by spark, only gasoline vapor will.

Compression at 30psi would cause a no start, you need above 100psi, and 2.3l should have 160+psi depending on year.

Crankshaft has a Key way, when it is pointed up it means #1(and #4) piston is at TDC
But you can also take #1 spark plug out(Either one) and see when #1 piston is at TDC
And you can also tell if #1 is on compression stroke or exhaust stroke
Put your pressure gauge in #1 and manually turn crank until gauge starts to go up
Thats the start of compression stroke, remove gauge and continue to rotate crank, in same direction, until you see piston come up and then start to go down, back it up to TDC.
Now you would need to look at the CAM gear

Image here: http://ww2.justanswer.com/uploads/eb...-09_111224.png
And here: https://motogurumag.com/i/ford-23l-l...er-khFEoXi.png

The Crank key way is at 12:00 but.........that uses oil pan rail as 6:00, 2.3l sits at a bit of an angle, so 12:00 oriented to oil pan
The timing mark on the crank gear is not line up with keyway, it is used with mark on engine front cover, when lined up then keyway will be at 12:00
AUX/oil pump gear mark at 12:00
Cam Gear mark at ABOUT 4:00, need to line it up with mark on engine front cover

And that sets compression if valves and pistons are OK
Cold engine will show "expected compression", 160-170psi on 2.3l
Warm engine will show higher than expected

Yes compression is effected by starter motor speed, this is because metal piston rings on metal cylinder walls, and metal valves on metal valve seats are NOT air tight, they are not suppose to be.
So the length of time it takes piston to go from BDC to TDC on compression stroke represents the amount of time air has to leak out, but it would have to be very very slow to lower compression to 30psi
And more of a concern on slow cranking is the voltage at the battery, if starter motor or battery is failing then if battery voltage drops below 9.5v when cranking then there may not be enough spark to ignite cold gasoline vapor


Spark for 1995 2.3l is a little different than 1990 2.3l so I will do the 1990 first
1994 and earlier 2.3l distributorless spark system used a Hall Effect Sensor behind timing belt cover to set base spark and injector timing.
It was connected to the ICM(ignition control module) located on the front end of the lower intake
ICM was connected to both coil packs, and sent spark timing to the computer(PCM) so it could time fuel injectors, PCM also sent "user input" and spark advance info to ICM.
i.e. when you press down on gas pedal PCM informed ICM to change spark accordingly for acceleration.
But ICM is a self contained unit, it will spark coils if it is getting signal from Hall Effect Sensor, doesn't "need" PCM connection for base spark timing.

The ICM units were a known issue, they did fail from heat or wiring issues

1995 and up 2.3l Rangers had the newer computer, the ICM was built-in to it, way more reliable, but it used a Variable Reluctance(VR) Crank sensor located in a hole on the outside of the timing belt cover.
Hall Effect and VR are totally different signals, no way to wire or convert one to the other, so people trying to install older or newer 2.3l engine into older or newer vehicle run into this BIG problem, no easy way around it.

One other very important detail about the distributorless 2.3l and 2.5l
ONLY the exhaust side spark plugs work when starter motor is cranking engine!!!!!
ICM or PCM will only spark exhaust side coil pack when starter motor is active, this increases spark voltage which is needed for cold starts
Battery voltage drops to 9.5-10.0volts when starter is turning

So if you test for spark, test exhaust side, intake side won't have spark

Once engine is running BOTH spark plugs in each cylinder fire every time, there is no alternating.
And both spark plugs fire on power stroke and exhaust stroke, Ford uses Waste Spark system, so spark plugs fire every time piston is at TDC

 

I like what RonD has to say...
With me coming from the kia-forums.com site and having to deal with timing belts there on earlier KIA/Hyundai engines my first thought is the timing belt has slipped... That would cause the compression to be lower as the valves are not closing at the proper time (during the compression stroke).... The good part of this failure on the Ranger engine is that it's not an interference type engine like the KIAs...and if the belt slips timing or breaks the engine stays in one piece...
I'm surprised how well my 97 "salvage" Ranger runs with 143k miles on it... It's quiet and quite responsive...
You will get her going again...It takes a little patience, time, and effort... :)
Dave

A secondary thought.... You might want to check the compression gauge...especially if it came from Harbor Freight... as they have had some bogus gauges that read wrong...

 

I sure would like to know what happened here, as in outcome??