I've been helping a friend with his '88 runner. We found out, after much deliberation, it had a crack in the head. Got it fixed and got it back late yesterday. Put it back together today and it won't start I pulled valve cover and made sure it was in time. I've restabbed the distributer about a hundred times. It'll get close sometimes, but only if you hold the throttle wide open. It almost acts like it's not getting enough or any fuel, but the plugs are wet and it makes i little smoke aka exhaust. It also didn't have hardly any compression when i was checking for TDC, but the engine held 130psi during triuble shooting, just prior to the head job. HELP! I'M GUNNA PULL MY HAIR OUT!

 

is the engine 180* out of time? try rotating the engine over once and reinstall the distributor.

 

Checked that. That's what I thought too...

 

Is there stringy copper wire down inside the distributor? If so the pick-up coil is bad and if not it may still be bad! Mine went south!

 

I think it has sat long enough waiting for the machine shop to finish the head that the oil is gone from the cyl. walls and it won't make enough compression to fire. That's really all it can be at this point. I've checked the valve timing, the ign. timing, checked for fire, checked the firing order, and I know it's getting fuel. The thing is pissing me off! I think my buddy is going to trailer it to someone else today, I don't have time to finish it since the weekend is over. I feel crappy though like I'm just giving up.