Hello all, just wanted to use my first post to introduce myself and my issue. I'm John, I have a '95 Camry LE, 2.2 that I rescued from a junkyard in Virginia Beach, VA a few years ago. I was going to get parts for another car when I saw it parked out front, that's usually reserved for semi-running vehicles. Well, I bought it and immediately got a used JDM engine, transferred all my emissions control stuff over and got it running really good. The odometer had roughly 161,000 miles back in 2012. As of today, it's at 199,000 and was doing fine until last weekend.

With all the good weather I've been using my motorcycle more than my car, and it had been maybe 2 weeks since I last drove the car. Realizing that I went outside to start the car, let it run and charge and push gas through the fuel system. I got in and it fired right up like usual. It was just getting up to normal operating temperature (gauge just under dead center of the range) when I leaned over into the passenger floorboard area to look for my GPS unit. I bumped the gas pedal with my foot and the engine bogged WAY down, almost stalling out. That caught my attention! I then pushed the gas pedal down again to see what it would do and it just stalled out and died. Since then, every single attempt at starting it results in the engine turning over really nice but it does not fire at all, not even a slight hiccup. Here is a list of stuff I've checked so far:

1) ALL fuses have been checked at least 3 times, some more

2) ALL relays that I can reach with my hands have been pulled and op-tested with 12 volts, they all click and operate normally. Also tested with multimeter.

3) Fuel level is over a half tank. Fuel is making it all the was past the filter and into the injectors. Spark plugs are wet when pulled and fuel pump runs when using FP/B+ jumper.

4) Distributor cap & rotor are in fantastic shape, barely any signs of wear. Ignition coil and ignitor are both new as of yesterday. Plugs and wires test good with multimeter/visual inspection. No unusual wear or color on plugs and gap is correct across all 4. Verified spark to all 4 cylinders as well.

5) Timing belt is in great shape, was replaced approx 35,000 miles ago when replacing engine. I pulled the cover off today to have a look at it, there are no teeth missing and it is still under good tension. Cam sprocket and crank pulley both *appear* to be in correct time. Also, the distributor rotor spins when engine is cranked.

I've read a lot of threads mentioning AM2 fuse, it is definitely known to be good, as is the fuse I swapped into it to be sure. I've checked all the grounds going to the engine and they all seem to be seated well and have good contact/continuity. Checked all the plastic plugs going into everything electronic under the hood to make sure they were seated. Checked all the vacuum lines coming off the throttle body and all the ones hidden behind the intake area. When I did the TE1/E1 jumper the only code I got was 24 for the air temp sensor I have unplugged.

As far as I can tell..... I have all the prerequisites for a running engine! I have fuel, air and spark at all 4 cylinders, the only other two things I could think of would be timing and compression. The timing stuff looks okay but I'll check for Cyl #1 TDC and make sure it all lines up again once this afternoon heat goes away. As for compression, I cannot believe it would suffer something catastrophic enough to drop compression across all 4 without it being very obvious- and I've had that happen with another vehicle (had an old Prelude that spit out a connecting rod through the front of the case!!!). Folks, I am very open to suggestions at this point. I'm not even upset anymore, I'm actually quite fascinated at this point. I'm considering maybe waiting for the solstice so I can try to summon the engine gods with a sacrifice or maybe put on my tin foil hat and try to message the aliens with morse code Thanks for reading and any, I mean any, suggestion will be taken and tried at this point.

 

How did the engine run before? Any bogging on hills indicating lack of power or hard starting issues.

Any change when pressing on the gas pedal?

Even though you replaced many ign parts, ign issues cause a lot of hard and non-start problems.

Does the car have a remote or built into the distributor ign coil? How strong is the spark and what color? Should be able to gap 1/2 inch of air.

Might rechecking cam/crank pulley timing on the off change the belt jumped a cog.

Might be too much fuel. The fuel system has a return system for excess fuel controlled by a vacuum powered fuel pressure regulator on the fuel rail. Check vacuum hose.

Other issues could be stuck open EGR valve, IAC valve, TPS.

If the engine started OK before, doubt it is compression.

Check the ign spark.