Yea, I would like to eliminate as much as possible so I can stop chasing my tail.
To give you an idea of where things are located check out these:
Engine bay,
Air box,
Gears The first 2 pics are pre-overhaul, and as you can see, the IACV on the side of the box is supposed to control the air going through that smaller air hose to the TB. The 3rd pic is just to see if your gears and TB are setup the same way.
Oh yea, the POS TPS = Piece of S___ Throttle Position Sensor that I bought from Advance Auto since I couldn't get an OEM part at the time.
You may have a point about the crank & aux gear lining up, but the cam gear being off. I had to line them up several times to get it back together so anything is possible. I say this because I can't be 100% certain that all 3 are where I meant to put them. Over the weekend I will pull that little plug and set it to TDC to see if it still lines up, plus pull the codes if I have the time.
The funny thing is, yesterday driving around, it idled fine yet still lacked some power. I didn't notice any stumbling any of the times I came to a stop. Weird. And it still had the smell of fuel in the air when you get out. I really believe it has 2 (or more), minor problems that are causing all these headaches.
I have no problem being honest about what I did. If I screwed it up, I may not be the first to realize it, but I will admit it if someone points it out. No, this is not the first engine I have tore into. I am certainly no mechanic, but I have been working on cars for the last 20+ years. On the other hand I am 10x more familiar with Chevy, and Pontiac V8 engines and Honda 4 bangers. This is the first time I have gone so far into a Ford 2.3L. I find it to be a simple design, but lacks the amount of power I believe it should have for such a large 4 cyl. And yes, I am very happy I was able to get it running again. I don't know how much of the infamous head gasket thread you looked through, but you have to laugh at the amount of trouble this engine gave me just trying to get the head off.
Thanks for your help. Any help I can get is better than nothing.