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Hi.  I'm very happy to have found this forum.

Have a mystifying problem:  95 Camry, spark timing checks OK with timing light during cranking.  So the timing belt must be OK unless it jumped time by exactly 180 degrees, very unlikely.  Injecting gasoline, ether, propane at throttle body with intake hose disconnected does not get it to fire.  Vacuum at throttle body seems normal to hand feel during cranking.  The AFM is not in use at this test, but at least it should fire once since spark timing is correct, and it has manually injected fuel of some type.  But all it does is crank.  No codes are set.  Can hear fuel pump with Fp and B+ jumpered with ignition on.

This problem makes no sense.  Correctly timed spark + ether, etc., should make it fire once, or make it do something.  Vacuum at throttle body indicates correct valve timing, which correct spark timing also indicates, since distributor is driven from exhaust cam.

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks.  Looking forward to words of wisdom from a forum subscriber.

BernieK
berniek@technicaldevelop.com  

Remove 1 spark plug from engine and allow metal frame of plug to touch metal of engine.

Look to see if spark will jump the plug gap.

Also look for wet fuel / oil on the plug.

Your problem may be related to the new reformulated gasoline which has a very low vapor pressure.

I had a 4 cylinder BMW 320i which ran very poorly on the California gas, which is probably the worst gas for starting in the entire US!

I finally gave up and got a 733i which is a 6 cyl engine and has 2 cold start injectors -- so it will at least consistantly start on our "gas"!