99' ford escort no fire cyl's 1&4

[177CIOfPureLove]

My buddy was driving a real clean 1999 (pretty sure its a 99) Ford Escort, I have known this car for a while, it has 116000 miles and doesnt use a drop of oil or anything. I even put a new battery and alternator in it for him almost a year ago, it is in great condition. It stopped on him a few weeks ago, the motor stopped firing on cylinders 1 and 4. He had a family friend look at it a few times and he came to the conclusion that the computer was not firing one half of the coil. The other cylinders fired perfectly. The coil and even the ecu have been replaced (the ecu was replaced the right way, by vin and mileage ect.) He even ran a new wire directly from the ecu to the coil to fire the other half, and no dice. What I am wondering if I could get him to seel it to me for a few hundred dollars, take my time in figuring this out, and once shes running again just flip it and make a pretty decent profit. He just bought a 08' ranger so it doesnt even matter anymore. This car ran so well and it has so much left in her. Whatever it is it has to be really stupid. I was thinking like cam position sensor or something.... it cant be that bad. Any ideas? Is it a good idea? I know it can be worked through. He does not have the know how or the patience. Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Ranger Sport Honduras]

maybe the timing sensor in the camshaft is failing, had that problem once in my tercel, we replaced the piston rings, and when we took out the timing belt we damaged the crank gear, so when it passed in front of the sensor, it had a faulty reading cuz it was dented, and couldn complete the cycle, so the car had the same issue u have there
hope it helps

 

[mentalbreakdown00]

Well first I would make sure 1 and 4 are the only ones not firing by using a spark tester at the end of the wires, if no spark, mover to coil itself and use a vacuum hose onto a ground and a test light and if no spark still then we'll go from there.

 

[177CIOfPureLove]

It has beautiful spark in 1& 4. Apparently everything is good until the computer has to send those cylinders spark

 

[mentalbreakdown00]

What do you mean by this?