I'm going to throw in one of my patented ridiculously long posts here.
The bottom line, whether it's running or not, cranking or not, is this:
It's spraying fuel during cranking. Reliably. This has been visually confirmed by pulling the rail, which also showed an aggressive and tidy cone of fuel coming from the injectors. There's plenty of fuel coming out the return line as the injectors are firing as well, and you can feel a strong pulse in the hose from return line to jerry can, indicating injectors firing and presumably good fuel pressure too.
It's sparking during cranking. Reliably. We have checked rotor position (remember, it's LH 2.4, so the distributor does nothing but path the spark) relative to the crank (pulley), we have checked the crank (pulley) relative to the cam (pulley), we have shone a timing light at both crank and cam pulleys and they were in the appropriate places. When Ian checked timing he couldn't see the mark on the crank, but I had trouble seeing it too 'till I got the light/shadow right (we didn't have a paint stick or chalk or a sharpie or anything). We have pulled plugs and bead blasted, visually inspected, and spark tested them. You can even see the spark happen a little after you hear the compression whoosh out of that plug hole.
It's got compression. The engine cranks exactly like it did before, and it is quite relieved when the plugs are pulled. As Dale said, the cam and cam pulley have been checked relative to one another, so that's fine, and I've checked the crank and cam relative to one another and they're fine. It's a B23 so the crank pulley can be trusted. The block mount dizzy has been checked and it's pointing to #1 when the cam timing mark is showing TDC compression #1, and the firing order has been verified as correct.
The electrical system appears to be working fine. Ignition switch is powering ignition and fuel computers during cranking, evidenced by the injectors firing and the spark sparking and the fuel pump pumping. Whether or not they're still working during running is hardly material right now, since it barely ever gets running.
If it were having troubles just cranking and it ran okay, the tests above would have shown something wrong, and we would have fixed it by now. If it were having troubles staying running, it should at least fire (which it barely does).
What baffles me is the sequence of events. The RSR wasn't working when I got there, so after swapping it out and now hearing the click of the injectors through a screwdriver-stethoscope, I know THAT was a problem. Swapped old and new RSR in, verifying the old one no longer working. The RSR is a car killer, in the sense that when it fails, the car stops, but what could have happened to the rest of the car that now prevents it from running now that the RSR has been replaced? Looking at it a different way, what could have failed in such a way that killed the RSR in the hour between it dying and me showing up?
Yes, the engine could have fired backwards, it could have kicked a cam out of position, it could have spat turbo oil at the AMM. All of these have been checked or corrected. Yes, it could have been a power spike, but both ECU and ICU have been replaced with spares, and both are communicating with the communication plug dealiebob. Ignition module, CPS, and AMM have also been replaced with spares, as have the cap & coil.
I have little experience with LH 2.4 or EZ116K. I assume it ignores the knock sensor, O2 sensor, and the AMM during cranking. I assume it relies upon the IAT sensor (in the AMM?) and obviously the coolant temp sensor for starting. We know from experience what a failed or insufficient crank sensor signal does - erratic spark & injection. What's that thingie in the crankcase vent return hose?
Confession time: We cannot vouch for the condition of most of these spares. ICU/ignition module and AMM all came from a junked '91 turbo, and haven't been tested prior to now. None of these (aside from the AMM) are really failure prone, and the car that's in the JY is a MESS - valve shims have been busted and have gone everywhere, CPS was mangled... mechanically the engine is wrecked, so I believe it was running fine when it ran out of oil. We're only relying upon 110 years of combined experience to verify compression, so we probably should check it at some point, and I don't like the fact that Ian (the most experienced one) couldn't see the timing mark... but he's pretty old and his eyes might be going. Lord knows his mind is.
Regardless, all our "questionable" spares (aside from the AMM) have proven to do what they need to do. ICU and module are both providing the car with good spark at the right time, and the engine SHOULD run on limp mode without the AMM plugged in... right?