As I'm staring at my fridge on a windy Tuesday evening, wallowing in self pitty. I trully wonder if by some odd series of fate I ended up with a demon of a corolla, two major issues are resting heavily on my mind. The first, I can't decide whether to make a whisky and coke, or opt for a simple yet delicious Blue Moon. The second is why after so many attempts I can't get my Corolla to run. A few moments pass by and I reluctantly reach for the beer. After popping the top I start to think about the events of the past couple months.

About 2 months ago the head gasket blew in the corolla. After parking it I started the tear down and sent the head off to the machine shop. I ordered the gasket, grabbed some oil, a filter, head bolts, and the coolant required for the rebuild. While patiently waiting for my head to be finished, I spent most of my time chilling with pals, smoking shisha, and of course working my 2.5 jobs. Living the life right?

Once I got the head back from the machine shop I noticed the 4ac bolts I ordered were actually the incorrect application. Hunting down the bolts proved to be more difficult than anticipaited. So I went against my initial rule of never re-using head bolts. I inspected the entire engine and cleaned everything nice and pretty. I set timing perfectly and aligned the distributor to cylinder one multiple times. The only way I can get it to start is if i actually set it a tooth retarded, richen the carbuerator, and turn in the idle adjustment screw. And as predicted it runs sluggishly, throttle response is horrid, and diesels when turned off. I deleted egr aside from that everything is as before. My only remaining theory is maybe, just maybe, it's got bad gas and therefore acting up. If anybody has any ideas I am all ears. I just need to get it running long enough to do my fuel injection swap. I can't even get it to start today to play with timing. It just sputters, backfires, and acts like it's missing and dies. I've considered just setting it on fire.

Well, everyone knows that it's not the headbolts, only that possibly the time spent on them caused you to forget something in the re-assembly rush.
What's the compression?
Ignition and/or cam timing, that's all, as it is a very unlikely coincidence that something else, ignition and/or carb., failed while it was apart.

I haven't checked compression yet. However I didn't rush the rebuild process at all. I just couldn't find the correct head bolts. I had it runnig 2 days ago idled at 1000 rpms. Actually ran strong besides throttle reaponse due to retarded timing. I Revved it to 4 after I cycled the coolant. I know the carb is good, I'm about to go set timing one last time. I'm taking the whole front cover off. And checking to make sure it's on compression stroke. (Even though I know it is) Sometimes you find issues anyways. I also changed the spark plugs, wires are fine. Could use a new cap and rotor but they're functional for the time being.

4ac head bolts are fine to reuse. Whats your timing advance set at? Also did you check the crank pulley? sometimes the outer rings comes loose from the inner, and it will make your timing look way f3@ked.

I'm not sure why head-bolts would have anything to do with this but it sounds like you have some plug wires crossed.

Head bolts didd't have anything to with timing I was just giving a detailed description of the process. I finally sorted it out. I'm not sure why this is but timing marks on my distributor were inaccurate. I appreciate all of your input as I checked all of those things. Multipe time lol. I eventually pulled the bolt out of the distributor, got it to start, and had a friend turn the distributor till it ran as it should. I then shut it off and pulled the distributor out and realigned the bolt to the mounting position and timed it from there. It was bizzare to say the least.

Probably it's an electric problem. i had the same problem. you should check the connections of the solenoid wires.