91 Camry V6 won't start - help!
Hello all! I'm new, having just stumbled upon the site after doing some research on this issue. I have a 1991 Camry V6 with 120k miles on it. Great car! But it just quit starting/running! No previous symptoms or trouble at all. What happened is this:
We drove it all day long as usual, then parked it for the night. That night, we hard a hard freeze and ice storm. The next day was super cold too, so we didn't go anywhere. The next day after that, go out to start the car and it turned over a few times but then went to a sound like a power drill. Now, every time you crank it there's no loping sound like it's trying to kick the motor over, just the power drill sound.
We thought it might be a timing issue so we took off the front cover and replaced the timing belt and water pump (needed to be done anyway). The timing belt was worn with a few teeth missing but not completely shot. Installed the new one without much trouble. Tried cranking it, still get that whirrrrr sound with no engine lope like it was trying to kick over. So then we figured it must be a starter issue. Took the starter off and had it bench tested at Autozone, it tested bad, so we got another starter. Still getting the power drill whirring sound. I had also picked up a starter from CarQuest and we tried that one too, no luck.
We checked for spark and fuel, and have both. We replaced the EFI relay just to see if that was the problem, it wasn't. All the fuses and relays within specs according to the ohmmeter and Haynes manual. Husband pulled the number 2 plug (since number one is a PITA to get to) and found that the plug was soaked with fuel. He said it looks like our timing is 180 degrees off - we hooked a timing light up and cranked the starter (with the whirrring sound) and the timing seems steady during the cranking process but he says it appears to be 180 off.
Any ideas what would have caused this to happen? Is there a sensor or something that would have gone bad? Has anyone ever encountered this problem before? I'm completely at a loss, and I really miss my car. Any help would be immensely appreciated! I just want to explore all possibilities before I have it towed to the mechanic and pay out my rear.
Thanks a ton!
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