2.4 turns over, has spark to the spark plug, but does not fire up.

Hello everyone,
I am new to this forum, and I have a situation that I need to bring to the professionals here. I own a 1991 Dodge Power Ram 50 4x4. I found a loaner truck that has the same 2.4 engine, but in a 2 wheel drive truck. The guy claimed the motor ran 2 years ago, so we hooked up a battery and gave it starter fluid. The motor kept turning over, but never wanted to fire-up. We even checked for spark through the spark plug wires, and there is spark. Can anyone please help me out?, because I don't know what else to do. Also, I was wondering if there is a difference in the motor components between a 2.4 in a 4x4, and a 2.4 in a 2 wheel drive? Thanks guys for your time.

Hi and welcome to mightyram. The 2.4 in the 2WD and 4x4 are the same engine. The best place to start is getting codes out of the ECM. That will tell you if you have a bad sensor etc before you throw money at it. Secondly, the ECM's are known to go bad, requiring new capacitors being soldered in (this is a relatively straight forward process and if you're competent with a soldering iron you could pull this off) You'll see the damage on the ECM board as the capacitors swell up and/or leak.

my 2.4 hadn't ran in years when I got it.
I used a spare injector pigtail to pulse each injector 12V (do it on all laid up motors)
I rigged up a temporary fuel tank/jug/pump with rubber lines, connected at the firewall

I start it about once a month. It'll crank long if I don't 'prime' it.
I pour a cap full of gas in a short hose connected to the vacuum nipple on the intake manifold for the brake booster
Then it fires right up on half a crank.... runs like a top.


Make sure cam belt is on time also

Thank you very much. Im going to try it next weekend when I bring the motor home.

Thanks guys, Ill try it next week.

If you didn't get it running yet I might suggest that the computer is bad. I spent months on my 90 2.4 tracing wires and replacing parts. it came down to the computer and the cam sensor in the distributor. The good news is the 91 and newer have the same computer and they are eaiser to find and cheaper then the 90.