First up I tried a different fuel pressure regulator. It made no difference what so ever.

So next I reverted to the ECU coil signal rather than that from the ignition module. No difference. I tried a different coil. No difference. Then I went the whole hog and fitted the Sri130 distributor and coil, just like my original ignition system. It didn't run. After some divving about I realised that I'd put the rotor arm on backwards (it only had the one screw holding it in, the other bit had cracked off when I used a pair of Meole grips to undo the hex nut that someone had Loctited in). Once I'd sorted that it ran but made no difference. Then I reverted back to my new old distributor set up since the problem seemed to be unrelated to the ignition side of things.

Then I took the fuel rail off. Interestingly, one of the injectors and part of the wiring loom rail looked a bit burnt. No damage to wires seemed to have happened. All the same, I removed the injectors and fitted the injectors from the Cav. Made no difference. I was contemplating chaning the ECU, but the plugs didn't match. It was 12.30 by now and i hadn't eaten anything all day. So I limped the car down to Sainsbury's for a big feed. Full fat brunch was eaten.

Then I went home and tried a different ECU but that was even worse.

Symptons are: takes about 15s to get it started. Doesn't start sharply, it gradually comes to life. Idles badly. Pinks whenever any load is put on. Max speed is about 40mph if you avoid pinking. Will pink if the throttle is just blipped hard with no load.

I checked a few more things in the afternoon and found nothing unusual. I tried another Air Flow Meter and another ECU. No difference. So I decided to go down to our tuner's workshop. I drove the car round to the petrol station and brimmed it with fuel. Then it wouldn't start. Took me 25 minutes of random messing about before it would start. So I drove home to phone him up and tell him I'd be late. Only it wouldn't start again. After 30minutes it started but by then it was too late.

So far it had been a stressful day, but I wasn't giving up yet. How can a car that's run fine for 2 years suddenly turn into a non starter overnight? It had  to be something obvious somewhere.

Rob came round tonight and we tried a load of other things.
First up the ECU wasn't receiving a steady 12v. Wires were followed, and eventually we realised that the earth point was not good. That was sorted. Didn't make any difference though. So the hopes of beer time were dashed.

We tried wiring combinations. We took all the plugs out and checked that they were sparking. We checked the ignition timing. Everything was fine.
So, all plugs sparking at the correct time, fuel coming up to the rail, but the engine would not start. In the end, at 9.30 we officially gave up. In the past, if there's been fuel and a spark then an engine will start. Not this time.

We wonder if there's a wiring loom issue or the ECU is fried. All could be possible.

The  plan was to bin all the suspect items and replace them with a much simpler set up. Yes, the much talked about carbs might be appearing earlier than planned. If the engine doesn't run with carbs, then something internal is fubared and it'll be head off time. Not that the cam kit needs fitting anyway.

Whatever.

At this point someone suggested doing a compression test. Since it was late at night, I decided to go and buy one the next day. Meanwhile I organised a hire car.