92 1.8 Eclipse-No start

I genuinely appreciate any light that you can shed on this problem:

I have a 1992 Eclipse with a 1.8 and this morning it would not start. I had a mechanic in the neighborhood come down and he spent over an hour verifying fuel delivery, presence of spark, etc. We installed new plugs as they were due for replacement. We took off the distributor cap and cleaned out a little carbon build-up. Compression seems to be good. Eventually, he was at a loss so we tow-strapped it down to the local garage only to find out that they "don't do imports". However, on the way there, I popped the clutch to get it going and I could hear what sounded like the engine running, but when I pressed the accelerator, nothing happened.

Background: 3 months ago, I was cleaning the car and opened the air filter canister and blew out the air filter. Prior to that, I never had a starting problem; the next morning and everyday since, it would take 3 or 4 tries to get her to fire up and even longer on some of the cold mornings recently. But even then, it would always start, until today.

I've read dozens and dozens of threads here today and things like jumped timing and crank sensors seem to come up frequently but my funds are very limited and I'm hoping to have as much helpful input as I can before having to make a command decision.

Thank you in advance for your help and interest in helping me to resolve this problem.

I think you will find the problem is the Mass Air Flow sensor. It is the large thing that sits in the air canister. I have a '92 1.8 as well and the symptoms you describe sound exactly like what happened to me when the MAF went out last year. It got worse when the outside temp was colder. Unfortunately, its like $300 for a new replacement. You can do what I did and get it from the j/y for like $80.

Thanks a lot for your help...I will try that and will let you know how it goes. Thank you again for sharing that with me.