For the past week or two I've been trying to get my car to idle properly(won't idle at all & stalls out if I don't give it gas), and in the process of working out all the possible problems I decided to regap all my spark plugs and I've found that the spark plug in #3 was completely clean despite the car running really rich. The #1,#2, and #4 plugs were all kinda of fouled up but #3 spark plug was untouched.

At first I thought it might have be due to the injector or the wiring. So I pulled the #3 injector and tested it to make sure it works and when I put power through it, it clicks open and closed. Since the injector worked I grabbed a test light and turned the key to accessory and tested the plug and I'm getting power from the harness.

Since those work, I thought maybe it was a faulty spark plug or spark plug wire, so I switched the #3 spark plug with #1 and grabbed an old plug wire I knew that worked and started the car for a second or two and then pulled the #3 plug and it came out clean as if nothing was happening in there.

So for some reason my #3 cylinder isn't working. I've checked for codes on the ECU and getting 55. I'm running out of ideas on why my #3 isn't working like it should. Injector works, getting power from the harness, and the spark plug works. Only things left I can think of is to try changing out the distributor cap which I'll do tomorrow or so, and aside from that the only other thing I can think of is maybe the ecu is forgetting to tell the #3 to do it's job, but for some reason I doubt that.

Also in terms of what I've done to the motor is as follows:
New Deatschwerks 550 cc injectors
New DW 300 lph fuel pump
New NGk bkr7's gapped to .030
New oem spark plug wires
Enthalpy ECU
89.5 mm CP Pistons 8 to 1 ratio
Eagle rods
Rebuilt head
Balanced rotating assembly
New 280zx l28et high flow oil pump
N62 maf

I think that's all the important bits. Since I've rebuilt and turbo'd the motor, I've put zero miles on it.
If anybody has any hints or clues as to what else I should be checking, let me know so that I can get my car back on the road.

If you want to see if your 3rd injector is getting a proper signal you could pull the pump fuse then pull an injector from the rail then connect it to the 3rd plug and crank the car and see if it clicks.
I think that would work.

How old is your distributor cap?

Ah yeah, good stuff. I'll double check it doing it that way too.

As for my distributor cap, it's probably at least 5 years old. I was originally going to just reuse my old one but the inside contacts had a lot of build up, so the one I installed on my motor was a newer distributor cap I had laying around that I pulled from a pick and pull a long time ago. The only thing is, is that this newer one is an aftermarket cap cause it doesn't have the nissan/mitsubishi markings on it like my original one.

Good stuff, I just double checked everything. Grabbed an old spark plug and plugged the #3 spark plug wire into it and turned the car over to check for a visible spark the #3 spark plug wire and the spark plug is giving spark so that's good.

Pulled the #3 injector out from the rail and plugged it into the #3 harness plug and turned the car over without the fuel pump fuse in and it doesn't click open... Switched the harness plug out with the #4 harness plug and it clicks open.

Hoping it's the ecu's fault, I plugged in a spare oem ecu and same problem. Now I did cut and lengthen all my injectors before hand so that I could tuck my harness under the manifold. So I guess the green/black ground wire must be faulty since I did test for power coming out of the harness with a test light.

Sigh, gotta go through the pain of digging that wire out and unwrapping it to check the solder.

Hopefully it's a bad solder and not something deeper.

Try to look for leaks everywhere use some starting fluid sounds like the problem we had with a CA18DET hope that helps??

So it turns out the ecu I had sent to enthalpy to be retuned, somehow ended up with a bad injector driver or something. Sent the ecu back along with a spare ecu I had and he swapped the boards around and got them back to me. Car isn't running on 3 cylinders anymore, but the car still won't hold idle on it's own. If I keep the throttle open with my foot and bring the idle down to around 1000 it gets really rough.

If I keep the throttle open, the car will stay running but it backfires violently like a WRC antilag system to the point where it blew out bits of my cat/muffler. I can get it to idle at 1500/2000 rpms if I disconnect the maf, but once I plug the maf in, rpm's will drop and eventually stall out.

I was thinking it may still be something to do with my ignition timing. This is what my oil pump shaft looks like, link. From what I've read it should be at 11:45/12:00 position when at TDC. Is this right? Or am I going to need to pull the pump out and realign it.

Also read in some cases bad idle or whatever may be a result of the MAF being too close to the turbo. I have mine about 7 or 8 Inches away from the turbo. Do I need to move it out more?

As far as leaks, I've double checked all clamps and intercooler connections and everything is tight.

What else do I need to be trouble shooting to solve this?

Also here's a picture of my setup;

I think my maf placement should be alright. I've seen pictures of other setups with the maf even closer, without any problems, but then again every setup is unique.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Is that the only way to TDC the motor? Sounds like you're off a tooth, but I have no experience on the SOHC. Have you tried rotating the dizzy to check for changes?

Yeah, i've tried adjusting the distributor, but no matter how far I advance or retard,but still no real change except the motor starts pinging when I advance it a lot.

I did pull the maf sensor and let the car stay running so I could check the timing with a light, and at 1500-2000 rpm's it's at about 12 degrees. So maybe it's off a tooth?