I bought this 2.0 non-turbo beaut from a friend, he said it overheated and had a bad head gasket so he parked it. It sat for a few years and I ended up picking it up for a couple hundred dollars. Pulled the head off, had it decked and reinstalled it with a shim plate and used copper coat, and reinstalled as usual along with all new belts. It's been timed 4 times, originally I had a reading of around 140psi compression but I rechecked it and its about 50 across, a little less on the 3rd cylinder. I've read forum after forum about this but I can't figure it out. It gets fuel to the rail, has spark, doesnt make any strange noise when turning over, just sounds like a car that's out of gas. I thought maybe all the trying to start it has wiped the cylinders to low compression but I don't know. I believe the timing to be perfect, the marks make a straight line across where they face each other on the cam gears and the timing mark on the crank is a half-tooth back of the mark on the engine. (Isn't that right?)

So this is what I (believe) I know, being my first Mits car:
I have fuel (not sure the pressure, but ..starter fluid..won't even fire it)
I have spark, even tried another coil pack
....so I don't think it could be crank sensor or cam pos sensor
Compression was 140ish, now 50ish
Timing should be correct
It ran before it was parked, so it should run again?

 

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