Possible Egr valve faliure or what else

I doubt its EGR-related. If the EGR were not functioning you might not pass a smog inspection, but not sure how it would prevent your motor from starting.

You verified that you have spark and fuel, so what else is missing from the equation?

what else is there??????

and also weird part is i can go out there press gas serval time and hold it and it will act like its trying to start then back fire.

Try to check the sensor. if not check timing belt may have jumped a couple of teeth.

Compression....

Regarding auto repair? Tons of stuff...

But getting back to basics, thermodynamics 101: Spark, fuel, ....AIR!!!

My unqualified guess would be flooding out due to lack of air flow, I would inspect the idle air control valve and circuit. Maybe crank mode from the PCM isn't actuating the solenoid when you turn the key. Maybe the IAC is so dirty the solenoid cannot move. Hard to tell from here.

Clean the IAC with some carb gumout... try starting with the IAC unplugged from the harness, might get lucky identifying the problem area.

Home mechanics 101: poke and hope!

Good luck, sleepdog

You probably have it nailed. The 1.6 Escort/Tracer motors(mid to late 90's) had problems with valve seats falling out and disabling 2 or more cylinders. The common scenario is: the vehicle runs fine, Park it overnight. Start the next day and it would start, run rough, then stall. After that, it may run on 2 cylinders or not at all.

do you think that the Idle Air Control Valve would stop the engine from starting at all.

Not if you know the alternate start procedure:

Accel to floor sends less gas, if no start: pump accel lightly sends more gas

Which would account for the 'pinging'

I think an engine needs three things to start, spark, fuel and air. My guess is no air in your case. And unless your throttle body is sealed shut by a gelatenous mass of an unidentifiable substance, I would start with inspecting the IAC.

In my readings of Ford service manuals I think I recall coming across a sentence or two describing crank mode of the IAC circuit, which is full open solenoid (full voltage applied) for a few seconds after ignition is successful until the idle calms down to normal, AKA "fast idle". In addition to starting one this feature is also designed to help cold engines get warm.

Pull the IAC and clean her out. Connect the solenoid to the car battery with some test leads and observe the response. Tell us what you can find out. If my guess is way off the mark, let me know.