I have a 1994 Ford Ranger XLT 3.0L V6 235000 miles and a couple of weeks ago i drove it and it started shaking violently then stalled out and wouldn't start again.

Symptoms:

All 6 plugs fouled
35 degrees off on timing
Low compression by about 25psi on cylinders 2 and 4

any ideas??

 

Never seen one of these just time, but I guess there's a first time for everything. Did it make any noise when it shut down? Are all the plugs fouled, or just 2 & 4? How did you determine it was out of time by that much? Short of a broken cam, sounds like timing chain.

 

all 6 of the plugs, no noise, and my girlfriends dad used his timing light but i don't know how accurate that is

 

Does it crank like it has really low copression?From what you say it sounds like it jumped time.

 

Ok, to get an accurate idea of timing, you must remove the spout plug, so the pcm cannot affect timing. It is usually close to the ignition module, a little grey plug inline on one wire. See if the timing is still off, it should come back to 10 BTDC. Run compession test on all cylinders. Check the fuel pressure regulator to see if the diaphram ruptured, remove the vac line to it and crank the engine over, see if fuel comes out. We'll go from there.