Ok here is the scenario....
Bought this 96 contour with a I4 2.0 Ztec DoHC for $275 (body and interior is flawless), guy said it was a bad water pump, and timing belt (guy is a liar). We get the car home (towed of course) Timing belt is brand new, water pump was shot, replaced the water pump, replaced the belt timing belt just because, turned the car over no start. So we started diagnosing it further. Sparg plugs were fouled bad, so went and got new ones, put them in back fired thru throttle body once, and nothing else. Just cranked and no fire. Like I said, getting plenty of fuel, plenty of spark. So we sat there and noticed when turning the motor over to fire, the serpentine belt is disconnected, and no water pump turning. Why would coolant be coming out of the hoses as we are turning over the car...hmmmmm so we looked at the oil to see if it was milky, no coolant in the oil from the looks of it. So we sat there and went thru every aspect that would cause it not to start, bad ground, fuses, etc etc..
So we looked took off the valve cover and we found small traces of coolant by the #3 spark plug hole, so we automatically clicked and said well a bad head gasket would cause coolant to come out of the coolant hose, compression is seeping into the coolant passages. So we took the head off the motor and what did we find Cylinder 3 area was clean, found where the gasket was blown. Now the thing is would the motor should of started with a blown head gasket. (I am assuming) Most cars Ive seen with a blown head gasket started up. Tomorrow we will be putting the head back on with a new gaskets. I was told by quite a few people these heads dont crack very often not very common on those heads. Any opinions where I should look after replacing the head gasket and it still wont fire, if its getting it basic things, like spark, fuel. Im running out of ideas to as why the car is not firing when the timing, spark and fuel is right there.
