I have a 93 ranger 2.3l that idles badly but when I give it gas it drives fine.Recently the check oil light has started coming on and I am adding a quart of oil every 3 days.the truck does not smoke at all.i decided to do a compression test. When I pulled the plugs they were all a light tan color, no burnt oil or wet plugs. I expected to have compression cause the plugs were in excellent condition. However I have no registrable compression The gauge reads zero on all 4 cylinders.just to double check my gauge I rented a tester from auto zone and it too registered zero.how does an engine even run with zero compression?i investigated further because I wanted to know where all the oil is going. There was some oil in the intake( I took it off to gain access to the spark plugs under it)I have oily soot in the tailpipe, lower rocker and back of bumper,I have no major oil leaks that would warrant the excess oil I am using,I have no oil in the coolant or vice versa. What is going on with this engine? How could I not be burning oil yet have oily soot at the tailpipe? Would a blown head gasket cause my no compression and oil usage?

 

How many miles are on it?

 

timing chain jumped or stretched such that its not having valve timing at idle but when you rev it they come back into timing close enough to get some compression?

 

The timing belt may have slipped a tooth, but in most cases, it would be gutless until you reach high roms.
A possibility that connects the exhaust to the oil is the EGR. If the diaphragm was ruptured, you could have vacuum or PCV pressure pushing oil into the EGR tube, and feeding it out the tail pipe.
If you have an automatic, it could be a punctured modulator diaphragm. That could suck oil from the tranmsission into the intake and give a likely whitish smoke.
If you have oil on the intake and on the bumper, you have a leak. The cam cover could leak onto the intake, and could leak down the backside of the engine, over the trans, and thence be blown under the chassis back to the bumper.
I would suggest some dye in the oil that glows when exposed to a black light. It should be added, and then drive for a day as normal, checking every day for evidence of the leak source.
A quart every three days, if it was fed to the combustion chamber would produce a LOT of blue smoke, so I doubt it is being fed to the engine.
tom