Car wont fire!, turns and turns, just wont fire! Options

[Tumult5sfe]

I replaced a head gasket last week in the 2.2. buttoned it back up, put the cams in on time to spec from all data. now the prick wont fire up, just keeps cranking. seems to have spark, definately have fuel to the cylinders. one weird thing is sometime when i turn the key off after trying to crank it, the fans come on, and my temp gage pins hot!? and they wont shut off unless i unplug the battery or i turn the headlights on then off....i didnt spot any blown fuses or melted wires on the main block under the hood or beside the steering column inside the car. anyone have any insight for me? im about lost on this damn thing and id hate to just trash it or part it out! Any help will be awesome, i miss driving my car!!!

[Jamchell]

OK a few questions for you,

1 Does it "pop" when you try to start it, like there is at least 1 cylinder firing?

2 Do you have good compression? Try turning the motor over with a wrench and be sure you have a good deal of resistance. Ideally you could check each cylinder with a gauge, you would need at least 3 with compression in spec to start it.

3 Did you hook up all of your wiring correctly, sometimes something gets crossed/pinched and can damage your ECU when you try to fire it up.

4 Do you have a timing light? You can see if you set the distributor right on the reinstall.

Your fans are on a delay timer so they will run after you shut off the engine at times if your ECU thinks the car is very hot. Did you short a wire to the sending unit perhaps?

It sounds like you have 2 or more simultaneous problems happening right now.

[Tumult5sfe]

Yes it pops like one cylinder wants to fire occationally.
I could have possible shorted something on the way, im guessing it wont fire if it thinks its overheated... it has full compression across the board, timing light shows up fine. ill work on checking through the relays and such for correct resistance just incase something may have fried. any other suggestions?

[Jamchell]

OK well if it pops, has good compression across the board and has fuel in all cylinders it's most likely an ignition timing problem of some sort. I know this may sound condescending, but did you hook up your spark wires correctly, I've had that problem in the past, you may also have a cracked distributor cap(have you checked all the wires with your timing light), damaged rotor or fried ECU.

It's very important you put your distributor in correctly and your rotor is oriented in the right direction when you are at TDC. This is the problem I'd place the most money on if I were betting. If this is off it will cause exactly the problem you have right now with timing.

[presure2]

did you connect the grounds to the back of the intake manifold?