A young man in my neighborhood has been working on his "new" E-30 with a lot of enthusiam. He was changing out his timing belt idler which was new a several weeks ago but started making a bearing noise so he changed it with the normal coolant spills on the garage floor. He had it running for a several seconds while filling the coolant. He shut it off to top up the coolant and start working the air out. Subsequently it would not start. It appears to flood fuel into the intake as the plugs are wet with fuel. When a plug in one of the wires is held next to the manifold, a spark occurs while cranking. We took the distributor cap and rotor out and cleaned them and dried thouroughly but to no avail.
If anyone has a suggestion as to what more to try, would be appreciated. He is taking up his dad's space in the garage, so he would like to get it running soon.

Thnaks,

Bob in Lake Havasu

All sensors hooked up? Timing belt on time? Spark plug wires in the right order? No air leaks? All fuses OK? No coolant spilled over some connector/sensor?

Well, it is running tonight. We disconnected the fuel line at the fuel rail and vented all the pressure. Pulled the fuel pump relay and it started, faltered and died. Put the fuel pump relay back in and started it up. For some reason the flooding with fuel just needed to dry out further. Happiness reigns in E-30 land.

Bob in Lake Havasu

A momentary disturbance in the Force sense I did. Resumed tranquility has.........Yoda