After I replaced the head gasket and head, it fired up just fine. I killed it once with the clutch and it took a lot of cranking to restart. So much that I thought I wouldn't be able to drive it. It eventually fired and I drove about six miles. When I was pulling into the driveway it died when I pushed in the clutch, but I was able to restart it by letting the clutch back out. I must've had an air bubble or something because it was steaming when I got there. I was watching the temp gauge the whole time though and it never got above halfway. Went to leave and it would only crank.
So far I've replaced the plugs, wires, coolant sensor, and map sensor. None of these have changed anything, it still cranks and smells like gas but seems to have no spark. The check engine light is on while cranking but that may be normal, I'm not at all familiar with there rigs.
Before I replaced anything, I sprayed starting fluid on the filter-no result. Sprayed a bunch directly into the intake manifold and had this result. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3wriQn7-SQ A little scary but burned itself out in about five seconds. It must have at least an intermittent spark then?
I wish every engine was a VE 12 valve, it would make life so much simpler.