car suddenly wont start - never ran great anyway, esp. cold, now cranks, but won't st

[btwilson86]

Sounds to me like you need to pull your upper timing cover off and verify that the timing is correct (between crank and cams), that there are no missing teeth on the timing belt, and that there is no excessive slack in the timing belt as well. What's happening with your car sounds EXACTLY like what my former 87 Turbo was doing when the timing was slipping. That can also explain why the ignition timing reads incorrectly