KA-T motor won't crank, out of ideas...

[Kouki Monster]

We just swapped in a '95 KA in place of a '93 motor in a '91 240. We have fuel, spark, firing order is correct, ignition timing may be off but we rotated the distributor back and forth and tried cranking in several different positions. Towards top dead center it would randomly huff and puff a little but nowhere near cranking. The connector was different from my harness to the S14 distributor so we put the S13 distributor on the S14 motor., but I'm not sure if or how that would affect ignition timing. We also thought maybe bad gas since the car has been down for about 6 months but a crap load of carb cleaner in the intake didn't do anything either. We have a timing light on the way but I was just wondering if anyone had any other thoughts as to what the problem might be. I guess I'll do a compression test while I wait on the timing light and knock that possibility out. If anyone has any ideas please help me out. Thanks!

[MS180SX]

its probably something small and stupid you overlooked. I had the same problem after i replaced the head gasket and timing chain in my 89 SOHC. It did crank but i wouldn't start. It turned put to be the IACV was complety off of the intake manifold. OPPs. popped it back on and viola... started right up.

Compression test would be a good idea

[teddy]

the motor would crank even if it had bad gas in it. I had 3 year old gas in my car when I tried starting it and it cranked. Check your ground wires, they could be loose or you're missing one somewhere.