After a lengthy battle with problem of cranking but not starting, thanks to the input and help of members of this group, I managed to fix the problem, or I should say problems.

I guess I was so unlucky that many problems happened around the same time and the fact that cold weather arrived compounded the problem. Here is the list and the fixes:

- I had 4 defective spark plugs. I am not sure what made them go bad so quickly as they were just a year old. I replaced them. I will replace the rest after the holidays.

- There were 3 bad coils. Their resistance was few Mega ohms! I replaced them.

- Replaced the ignition coil, since originally I thought that was the problem.

- The plugs were wet and I guess the engine was flooded because of all the cranking I have been doing, even though I was occasionally flooring the gas pedal to stop the flow of gas to engine. So I pulled out all the plugs and dried, cleaned and re-gaped them. And while the plugs were out, I cranked the engine to push out the gasoline from cylinders.

- After performing all these fixes, the engine was cranking but still no start. It seemed that the battery was draining quicker as the result of cranking. So I used booster cables and used the battery from my other car while the rpm was raised and kept above idle speed. This made the engine start and keep running. Plugging the block heater helped as well. I guess the battery was no longer in top condition after all this, although I had mostly kept it charging.

In summary, the problems were: 4 bad plugs, 3 bad spark plug wires, probably a bad ignition coil, flooded engine, and a battery that was not good enough to start the engine in this cold weather.

Thanks again for all the help.
and
Happy New Year.

__________________
Zorin

'88 Benz 420 SEL
'79 Porsche 911SC ('87 Carrera Engine)
'00 BMW 540 Sports Package
'99 Land Rover Discovery

86 300E - Manual (sold)
88 260E (sold)
84 944 (sold)