85 318i won't start, no spark on #4?

[thebutterson]

I have to pull the head to get the block worked on anyways. I just don't understand what's caused all of this in the first place. Nothing I've done has changed the problem with the engine not starting. I don't think the walls were just all of the sudden washed the first time it wouldn't start.

The only real problem I've found was the coolant switch/sender. I noticed the temp guage acting funny on the way home, it kinda just flickered around the cold mark. I'm wondering if this wasn't working and it could've overeheated and blown the head gasket between cylinders on the way home and that's why I only have one good cylinder?

#1 definitely is firing, the rest of the plugs looked the same as when they went in. If the problem was just with cylinder walls being washed down, wouldn't the all be the same? Sorry if I sound like a tard, I've just never dealt with a lot of this before.

[Jaxx_]

can you verify your firing order? I look through this thread and I have yet to see that you verified spark timing besides aligning the distributor.

[thebutterson]

Going counter clockwise, I set #1 at the notch on the distributor, then go 3, 4, 2. The vacuum diaphram points towards the shock tower, and the cap, rotor, plugs and wires have been changed. I've also visually checked spark.

I did rotate the distributor clockwise to get it to line up, is that advance?

None of this stuff was messed with before it decided not to start.

Thanks for trying to help