Help! Early model not starting! Has spark+fuel

[M4DE30]

Alright guys. Another one of those no start threads.

87 Early model with an Late model I motor. Car was running until I scraped a hole in the gas tank. Car sat for a couple months before I decided to revive it.

Temporarily patched the hole to at least get it started. So anyways,
Car cranks and cranks but will not start. Seems like the car is literally about to start sometimes but continues cranking. Even got the car to start a for a couple seconds but was really weak and died. Checked for sparked; got some spark. Checked the external fuel pump if it was working; Heard it and felt it working. Even smelt some gas as I was cranking. Changed the main and fuel pump relay with brand new ones, still nothing. Took the CPS, cleaned it. Still nothing. Swapped DMEs; nothing. Pretty stuck right now. Pretty sure the car has fuel as well because I put a couple gallons before all this.
Even put another in tank transfer pump to see if that'll do something. Nothing. Doesn't sound like it's working though. Not positive if that affects anything but like I said, external fuel pump works. Also I was looking through the 3 hard lines that come from around the gas tank area, by the external pump and the middle seems to be pinched. Tried to unpinch it and it got a little better but still nothing.

Could it be the pinched line? If not that I was lurking and read that it could be the FPR or a faulty CPS? Could it be a weak fuel pump? How would I test fuel pressure? Or the CPS? Any connections I should test?

Sorry if this might be a little all over the place but I'm currently at work with my head all over the place.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
-B

[dnguyen1963]

Tee a fuel gauge between the fuel line and fuel rail to monitor the pressure while cranking. If you have fuel + spark (assuming you have good compression) then the air/fuel mixture must not be right or your CPS is dead.

[raudonis]

do the injectors spray?

[M4DE30]

Thanks for the input. Haven't checked the injectors. How would I do that? Listen for em?

[raudonis]

Remove injector rail with all of the injectors from their place and have them above the rocker cover. Connect the fuel lines and injector wires back and have someone crank the engine while you hold everything and watch. Take care and precautions to not start a fire. I made a little tub from an old coke bottle to catch sprayed fuel. There is very little fuel sprayed and you can instantly see which of the injectors spray and how do they spray.

To check your fuel pump, place a pressure gauge right before the injector rail like dnguyen1963 said (pressure should reach the restricting value of the FPR) , or measure amount of fuel that comes out at the end of injector rail after thr FPR:

intank lift pump or more likely high pressure fuel pump would be the first things would test.

pull the return fuel line off and get another piece of fuel hose, connect it to the regulator and run it into a bucket or gas tin and start the engine

you should get good clean flow of fuel squirting into the bucket, You can time it and work out flow rate, i cant remember the flow volume but should be something like 15-20 Liters/min?? someone correct me if im wrong

edit: ok divide above ammount by 10.... thanks raudonis

if the fuel is full of bubbles and spluttering and stopping or anything like that then replace the pump

Amounts of fuel to be pumped thru the FPR in 30 seconds with engine off (fuel pump relay jumped, pins 30 and 87 or 87b):
700cm3 for m20b20
750cm3 for m20b23
850cm3 for every other m20
Any less than that - your fuel pump is done.

[sayed ali]

You can open the fuel line and crank and see how is the pressure coming from the fuel pump, or you may have air in the lines due to the hole in your gas tank.. so while you cranking the engine try to press the fuel hoses that connected to the rail and see if it is want to start or not, continuing cranking as it is .. also cleaning the cps is useless, better to change it with another working one ..

[mr.vang]

Sound familiar, my previous eta was like that. Had fuel and spark but won't start. It was the external fuel pump. I suggest you take it out and jump it on a battery to see if it is working.

[M4DE30]

Haven't checked much since last time because of the hot ass weather and limited space but I did remove the rear hose on the fuel rail or at least tried to attempt to. Fuel wanted to burst out so I'm pretty sure I have good pressure going through the line. One thing I notice is my in tank transfer pump is not working, can that be the issue? I don't hear it prime or even feel it working. External works though.