well the o2 sensor might be a problem area we bought the car about 3 years ago and never changed it. In its final days of running yes it did get rather poor fuel economy seemed to be using nearly as much as our 93 mustand 5.0 I did do a code scan once and I believe if memory serves me right a code was setting for the TPS sensor whether this can cause this no start condition I don't know. looking at the car takes awhile since it's not close to me anymore and it's not a very high priority to me since it is not our only car.
As for the valves I did have the valve cover off and all the valves were working normally, I originally thought she my have got it hat warped the head and broke the cam, but this isn't the case.
while a ford is cranking under a no start condition can there ecm's detect why they are not starting, or will they just trip a distributor reference type code.
next time I'm near the car I will run a compression test on it and see.
I had also thought about the mass air sensor as being the culprit but I recalled once I had the rubber elbow off the throttle body and the car still started, it ran pretty bad so I sort of dismissed the mass air sensor as being the problem, I do hear the pump run so I am not leaning towards that as being the problem. My wife has never mentioned the car having any electrical problems so I'm fairly certain this isn't a cause either.
well keep giving me tips and sooner or later we'll know what happened.
thanks guys