[memoriter]

This evening, I powered the coil directly from the positive terminal on the battery, and ran a new jumper wire from PIN 1 on the DME connector to the negative on the coil. I made sure the distributor was completely clean.

I got a spark, but injectors didn't fire. I'm guessing they may be clogged, at this point.

Anyway, I used a bit of spray starting fluid in front of the air meter, and the car actually fired up for the first time and ran for a few seconds - very smoothly. I let it die off and tried to start again, thinking maybe the injectors had kicked in somehow, but it refused to start without the starting fluid.

A few minutes later, while trying to start again, there was a backfire out the intake - blowing the intake boot off from in front of the airflow meter. Just lovely.

I mean, I'm no moron. I know the meaning of the phrase, "too much." I also know how to deal with problems gently and with precision. I've dealt with some very annoying issues, including the mass of melted wiring in my E30, but this car has been a curse. It's been one idiotic incident after another, and I'm ready to scrap it out of frustration, among other reasons.

Despite this, it did start up and run for a couple seconds, so I'm guessing the problem remains with fuel delivery into the cylinders. If the delightful backfire didn't damage anything crucial (which, knowing my luck, it probably did), I could probably remove the fuel rail and somehow give the injectors a cleaning - or swap them out with known good ones sometime.

Anyone else have any ideas? Could it still be the electrical portion of the ignition switch if I have power to the injectors, but they don't do anything - even with proper spark?