Car still won't start even though I've given up on the electronic ignition and puts my old points distributor in. I'm really getting to the end of my rope here. My only remaining variable is the fuel, but the car began to run badly before I last fueled up and continued running poorly after I put new fuel in from a different station. My fuel filter is clean, but pump is working, there's fuel in the carbs.

The sparks are getting plenty of fuel and I've removed and cleaned the plugs several times in this process.

What I do know is the with the points distributor and with the allison unit, I'm getting spark to all four plugs, but despite setting the static timing a dozen or more times, the car will just crank and crank.

When lucky, it starts a bit, but never fully and dies as soon as I release the ignition. It sneezes a lot when it's not firing. or just does nothing but dry crank.

I've tried three different caps and rotors, two different sets of plug wires and distributors, and cleaned my carbs several times.

I've drained the carbs and refilled them. I've confirmed fuel, fire, and compression, and still this baby won't wake up...

Can bad fuel appear as bad ignition? can it cause the kind of problems I'm seeing? Could something be wrong with the carbs themselves that would look like an ignition problem? Th pistons move smoothly...

This stuff in my tank is NOT e85, we do not have that locally, but I can't say for sure what actually got into the tank. It'd have to be a LOT of water or something else non-combustable. This car also sits under a carport, but was out in the open before the trouble began.

As soon as the freezing fog is over, I'll drain the tank and try again with a couple of gallons of something new. However, spraying carb cleaner into the throat of the carb has done nothing, while in the past, it would cause the car fire up and run for a little bit.

So, while I'm waiting for better weather, does any of this spark any ideas?

Thanks as always.