Open the air cleaner box, remove air filter, have someone turn engine over while you spray a little starting fluid in the intake, ( gas in an oil can or spray bottle is better, but starting fluid works), if it fires start checking fuel pump system....

 

thanks. kind of figured i'd have to start from square one and check for air, fuel and spark. and, is it only me.....or does anybody else think it odd that a PCM would get sand blasted?

 

No it's not odd, that's how they clean them, but if you get some dumb kid doing it while staring at the clock waiting for break, he could blow glass bead or whatever they are using in to case, it is only a tin cover after all.

 

long story short: ignition coil reads 1.5 ohm across primary. no reading for secondary winding resistance( against high tension lead). Got a new coil coming. Hopefully this will solve the problem. i will post result when i can.
Update on 2/22/2019: it looks like everything is good after install of a new ignition coil. the Durango starts right up and runs fine. Put about 70 miles on it before taking it in for a required smog check.....it passed. so i am hoping that the new coil prevents the P0304 condition from returning. time will tell. thank you to all who offered guidance on this!

longer version: been busy and its rained a lot. so this troubleshooting got a little delayed. fuel pressure was good with no loss over a few minutes. each plug was getting spark. though, being novice at 'reading' the strength of the spark, i couldn't really determine if each was getting enough spark to fire the fuel mixture. plugs were wet when i pulled them to check compression. compression ran from low of 100 on cylinder 3 to 160 on cylinder 2. wet compression brought 3 lowest cylinders( 110, 110, 100 ) up to 155, 160, 160. So yep, going to need some major work soon to keep this Durango going.....maybe needs that work right now.

 

If you have been having problems starting, the cylinders may simply be washed down, but, not necessarily in need of new rings. Make it run decent first, (which you should be able to) then run the test again. So what the numbers look like.

 

That is good to know, thank you. i will do that.