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new to the forum. i have a 81 320i m10 5 speed and it wont start. it was running before. i had a slight misfire before all this but it ran pretty good and i had an air leak that i also fixed to. i also fixed a small fuel leak that was causing air bubbles in the fuel line i have replaced some parts ( that i will list below) then is just stopped running. i have put it to tdc many times by lining up the marking on the crank pulley, cam sprocket, and distributor, re adjusted fuel mixture many times and still no start. pulled the injectors and turned the mixture screw till the injectors werent spraying.
parts that i have replaced
pick up coil
distributor cap
distributor rotor
ignition coil
spark plugs
wires

Welcome! Hmmmm no offense but you started adjusting things without knowing where the issue was? Did you remove the spark plugs? That could give you an idea if its a fuel problem or an ignition problem (for example: wet plugs or not). You can also check for a spark by pulling out one of the plugs, be careful with fuel fumes and high voltages though. Another hint: spin all your fuses in their holder, sometimes a corroded contact leads to a simple electrical failure. Let us know your first findings mate!

all i really did was change my distributor cap rotor and pick up coil and then it wouldnt start after. i kept the distributor in place when i changed all that. i get good spark and good fuel pressure. fuse block is new as of last year and has all good contact points.
after fixing the vacuum leak i had would of put my fuel mixture out of wack so i leaned it off so the injectors werent spraying. i also richened it very slowly no more then a 1/4 turn from the injectors not spraying.
my guess something went wrong as i was changing the parts on the distributor

after i changed the dist parts i tried to start my car and no luck tried it multiple more times and still no luck. so i fixed a couple other issues i had for awhile the vacuum leak and fuel bubbles. then readjusted the fuel mixture.
i did tdc a without taking the distributor out few times, everything seemed to line up.
after a few times of doing tdc i took the distributor out and inspected it everything seemed to be good. put it back in had it all lined up proper again and still no luck.
i was on another forum trying to solve this problem and didnt get much help other then them saying all timing markings look good and lined up and could be a fuel mixture problem now.

Well you may have messed things up, but there may be more. Wrong coil, non matching set of roto and dizzy cap perhaps, are you 100% sure the plug wires are on correctly and things are not reversed 180 degrees? What if you put all the old gear back on?

if it was 180 degrees out wouldnt it backfire?
got all my distributor parts from bavauto. everything looks identical to the old parts.
i put the old parts back on the dist and still in the same situation.
all the spark plugs are in the right order and going to the right cylinder.

Well I witnessed a 180 degrees mistake once and it was so bad after a few starting attempts it blew both rear silencers of 323i to bits, not sure you want that haha

Back to the beginning, you have fuel pressure you say, how much and are the injectors opening? No giant vacuum leak like breather hose disconnected from the valve cover, oil dipstick out or something similar?

dont have to worry about the silencers dont have any on my car. straight pipe
fuel pressure is 70 - 74 psi. injectors open fine and spray fine.
no vacuum leaks checked the hoses and intake boot and its all good dipstick tube is good. valve cover cap is sealing good.

is it possible my icm is not doing what its suppose to do?

did you try pulling one of the spark plugs, or at least attaching a spark plug to one of the h/t leads to see if you are getting any spark? regardless of incorrect timing, you should be getting spark at least whilst cranking...

if you read my posting you would see that i said i have good spark and the plugs r new to. it also sparks while cranking nice blue spark

bimmerfane21 wrote:if you read my posting you would see that i said i have good spark and the plugs r new to. it also sparks while cranking nice blue spark

sorry didnt notice that, so if you've got fuel from the injectors (timing is irrelevant here) , engine is cranking over and good spark, unless there is a bad compression issue, the only other issue could be is timing, check to see that all timing marks line up on the timing belt, and if they still do then slowly rotate the distributor until you get some sort of response from the engine, should not take you any longer then a few minutes of turning the distributor at 10-20 degree increments to find the sweet spot the engine needs to start up....

i did tdc again and adjusted fuel mixture so the injectors werent spraying. took some pictures of my timing marks, will post below. i went a small bit past tdc but still very close.
i then tried starting it and it didnt do anything so i turned the dist very slowly in the retard direction, got it to sputter but just barely and was very rough but needed the starter going to sputter. so i adjusted the fuel mixture a little to make the rough sputter smooth out a little, it almost wanted to run but still needed the starter to help it sputter.
i almost got it to run on it own then i moved the dist a hair and got nothing out of it so now im back at step one. i tried moving the dist back a hair and nothing still wont even attempt to sputter