98 Pathfinder won't start - where to begin?

[llamuh]

My 1998 Nissan Pathfinder will not start. It does crank and occasionally starts but it quickly coughs, sputters, and dies. I know similar questions have been asked before and that I can search and find some info, but the people asking the question often times at least have some direction on where to look. I have limited tools and don't really have the funds to start throwing expensive parts at it, so I'm coming here for some suggestions.

History of the problem:
I rarely drive my Pathfinder. The last time I drove it at least weekly was two years ago. I ended up needing it around this time last year so I changed the oil, put in fresh gas, and it stated right up. I drove it for a couple weeks when I noticed the power steering was slipping badly and making a lot of noise. I changed out the power steering belt and the serpentine belt while I was at it. I drove the car for another three weeks or so (couple miles a day) with no issues. It seemed to run about as well as it had in the past. The car has never been that great at WOT but I don't really drive at WOT so it wasn't an issue. I have two cars and the Pathfinder was blocking the driveway, so I went to move it. As I was pulling back into the driveway, it sputtered and died. I attempted to start it and it would just crank and never turn over. I told myself I would look at it but never did.
Around 3 months or so ago, I decided I don't need to let it sit (a bit late huh?). I put some fresh gas in, some HEET, changed the oil, and decided to work on it. I pulled a couple of the spark plug wires and checked them for spark while someone cranked it. I did see spark. It started to rain so I left it. Now 3 months later, I charged the battery and decided to try to start it just to see what happens. To my surprise it actually turned over. It ran very rough for about 5-10 seconds and died. After that, it wouldn't start again. Last week I tried it again and got the same result. This time I tried to give it a lot of gas to see if I could keep it going but it still sputtered and died just as fast. It acts as if it is starving for air/fuel and maybe even missing.

I do not have a fuel pressure gauge so I'm unsure of the pressure. The car does have 165k miles on it and I'm not sure if the timing belt has been changed out, but I wouldn't think it would turn over at all if it was broken, right? There is an issue with the intake where the rubber tube has torn where it meets the throttle body. I noticed this car uses an AFM (or something like it?) so figured it may be getting extra, unmeasured, air so I did my best to clamp it down at the tear and sealed it off with duct tape. I also checked the distributor the best I could. The cap looks to be in decent condition but one of the screws was not even grabbing threads. Whoever worked on this car last just stuck something random in there. I got a bolt that fits better so it has a better seal. I blew out the inside of the distributor with compressed air. The rotor seems ok? but did have some white residue on the end, as well as the contacts in the cap, so I cleaned off the residue. The plastic cap thing under the rotor does have a small crack in it, but I wouldn't think it was enough to affect the function. Unfortunately, I don't know how to get it off so that I can inspect whats underneath it.

Back to the intake, just in case some squirrel had built a nest in the intake box or something, I decided to check it. I checked it not too long after attempting to start the car. When I pulled the lid of the box up, black smoke was rising up. There was also the smell of fuel. I checked the filter and the rubber tubing and I didn't feel any actual fuel but there was the faint smell of fuel. I assume that the motor is flooding some when it is trying to start. Even though it seems like it is getting enough fuel (just judging by the fuel smell), I considered using starter fluid in the intake, but was worried about how it may affect the AFM.

Oh and I did pull a code, though I'm not sure how helpful a code would be considering it never really runs. The code was for a knock sensor but I'd imagine it would detect some knock with the way it "runs" once it does actually turn over.

So, what's a list of things I can check/try/replace cheeply in progressive order?


TL:DR--
Car has sat for a long time. Cranks but rarely turns over. When it does turn over it will rev if I press the gas but sputters badly and dies fast. Distributor is questionable, but there is spark. Possible intake issue. Smell of fuel in intake along with a small amount of black smoke coming from it. Unsurprising knock sensor code.
Need some cheap & easy things to check as I don't have a lot of money to throw at this car.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

[Hawairish]

Ha, had to look up TL:DR (even though I read the whole thing).

So obviously, neglect is never a good thing, but seems like you've been checking the right things. But, it's probably difficult for us to get a real feel for what the actual condition of the engine is. That's a really long time to not give it much attention, unfortunately.

A leak in the air intake can prevent the car from starting or running, as well as a faulty/dirty MAF (I think that's what you mean by AFM). I believe the FSM has some voltage tests that can be performed on it. I'd start there anyway...there are a few troubleshooting matrices that you can walk through based on your symptoms.

[sgp0511]

So my 98 qx4 with 180k was barely driven and sat a lot like yours. I took it to work one day and it did the exact thing yours did, sputter and die. If I cranked and cranked I would get a smell of gas like it was flooding also. I pulled my distributor and tried to spin the distributor by hand and it would only spin with a lot of effort. I held the distributor upside down and the bearings fell out.before that I also checked for spark and I would get a good spark. So basically the bearings went out in my distributor c causing a no start. A trip to my local pick n pull and $40 later she was running like a champ again. It's really simple to pull distributor, just make sure you mark rotor location and distributor location so you don't get out of time.