hiI have a 1996 Ranger 2.3 liter engine that just blew up on me so I went out and found a used rebuild engine the problem is it's an older engine and the crankshaft position sensor sits behind the crankshaft pulley and timing belt cover 4 prong connector with a wire coming up my old engine it just sat in the side of the block next to the crankshaft and only has two prongs for the connector does anybody have any ideas on how I can makethis work with my wiring harness I was thinking about splicing it in but I'm not sure which wires to splice being that my wire harness is only two wires and on the plug there's four.

 

You are talking about 2 different sensors.
The one on the crank shaft is the CKP(crankshaft position) sensor
The one on the side that reads the AUX gear is the CPS(camshaft position sensor)

CPS here: Camshaft position sensor location - Ford Ranger Forum

CKP sensor here: http://www.justanswer.com/ford/37c7m...html#re.v/174/

The CKP sensor may be different on '94 and older 2.3l since they used the older computer and separate ICM(ignition control module)

 

Yeah my cps sits on my oil pump side and my ckp sits on the side near my crankshaft pully but being tthat the ckp is different on the on the new engine I'm putting in its actually 4 wires and a connector, is there any way you can think of that I can make it work? Or do I just need to find a newer 2.3 that matches up with my harness?

 

No, the older one is a Hall Effect sensor, your computer will only "understand" a Variable Reluctance(VR) sensor.

I think the crank is the same on both, so you could swap the lower engine cover, tone ring and timing cover, but not sure

The distributor models used Hall Effect sensor in the distributor sent to TFI ignition, when Ford went distributorless they stuck with the Hall Effect since that was what their modules were already setup to use.
When they switch to the newer computers in 1995(rangers) they used VR because it is a better type of sensor and the "module" was now in the computer so totally different type of system.