Needs an engine rebuild now. rip

Sure it didn’t hit a crank position sensor or something?

Yeah it’s out of time and may have eaten some valves. That engine has Fords POS timing system that doesn’t have a key for the timing components. The bolt being torqued down tight is all that holds the damper and sprocket in position. If the bolt gets loose the sprocket and damper can shift on the crank snout and it throws the engine out of time and 90% of the time it eats a couple valves at least. Sorry. What I do with them is not something Ford recommends, I will mark a spot on the crank and sprocket and cut a keyway and install a key, then put them back together so they can’t move around. Ford/Mazda should take the folks who came up with that idea and __________ them…

I recently worked on a mazda 2.3L. The crankshaft sensor tone wheel was part of the pulley, and the pulley was not keyed, making it very easy to get the tone wheel out of time. I removed it to reseal the front cover and had to be very careful to keep the indexing the same on the pulley so the crankshaft tone wheel would still be in the proper place. I’m betting the crankshaft pulley bolt came loose and allowed the pulley and tone wheel get get out of time.

Pistons vs valves never makes it past round 1.

RIP engine

Taken from alldata:

NOTICE: Do not loosen or remove the crankshaft pulley bolt without first installing the special tools as instructed in this procedure. The crankshaft pulley and the crankshaft timing sprocket are not keyed to the crankshaft. The crankshaft, the crankshaft sprocket and the pulley are fitted together by friction, using diamond washers between the flange faces on each part. For that reason, the crankshaft sprocket is also unfastened if the pulley bolt is loosened. Before any repair requiring loosening or removal of the crankshaft pulley bolt, the crankshaft and camshafts must be locked in place by the special tools, otherwise severe engine damage can occur.