Got air, fuel, but no fire... yep it won't start

[Myrrdin]

Ok, so I've been scouring the forums here for pretty much the entire day and have found some helpful hints, but no answers.

My situation is very similar to others that have posted before, so if you have already found the solution, please be kind and let me know what I'm doing

Story: I was driving home on the freeway on sunday evening and the car would cut out as I was going down the road, then come back as long as I let up on the gas a bit, I could excelerate if I did it slowly, but if I hit the gas too hard it would try to cut out. I milked it all the way to my off ramp but when I got to the light and stopped it cut out completely. I was finally able to get it started again, but when I hit the gas it cut out and hasn't started since. I have changed the coil pack and the fuel filter and was about to change the fuel pump untill a friend of mine came over and tested whether or not I was getting spark to the cylinders. No spark, brand new coil pack. What am I over looking? It's a 2000 zx2 auto with the 2.0.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Myrrdin]

Found the problem, the crankshaft sensor was chewed up because I had somehow lost the bolt to it. replaced it and it still wouldn't start, but was getting spark to the plugs. pulled the plugs to find that they had been fouled.

**ut oh, still wont start... now I'm puzzled. got spark, got fuel, got air. wtf.

[rhandwor]

Its possible you got fuel into the cylinders and lost compression. You can use a compression gage and check. If you don't have a gage pull the plugs pump some oil into all cylinders. Turn the engine over and blow out excessive oil
reinstall plugs and try to start.
If you don't have spark check the camshaft position sensor.

[Myrrdin]

Too late, I think you may have been right though. I thought maybe because the crank sensor went out, I needed to change the cam sensor. Which I did, then when I tried to start it, I heard a boom, and found aluminum pieces on the ground under the car. Looks like I'm rebuilding.

[rhandwor]

Thanks an expensive day. I would check a short block as I found this was cheaper than parts. I then got a valve job and the heads checked also.
They would do a short block on your block. One man on the list swears by Jasper engines.
Just use a good machine shop for your work. Pressing on new pistons,boring,polishing crank and ect.