Well, I finally have a minute to sit down and write something.
Great to meet you Jeremy, so sorry to find what we did.
I drove the 2 hours to Jeremy's place and on the way he said it would almost run, but shut down. When I got there, I noticed something right off: there was a socket stuck hard on the triangle bolt for the IP. When I mean hard, I mean I could not get it off at all. Upon cranking, it would emit some white smoke out the tailpipe and the N109 valve would actuate, but I observed a very large air bubble that would go into the pump and then back out again, indicating a breach in the fuel system at the pump. Then I found the PO (previous owner) had overtightened the bolt and completely stripped out the aluminum threads inside the pump. Wonderful...
(click on pictures to enlarge)
*note the aluminum still attached to the bolt
The other 3 bolts were very tight as well, but at least they were not stripped. I assumed someone was into the pump trying to adjust it, so I loosened the top cover and moved it over a little, then primed it with a Mity Vac, which helped since the bubble would no longer come back out of the pump.
Still no start. Back to the basics....
I pulled the timing cover and found two problems, one is that the tensioner was improperly tensioned, the notches weren't even close to being aligned, and the second was significant rust on the upper roller (I should have taken pictures). The timing belt was intact and moved normally, and the car seemed to build good compression. I moved the belt via the cam pulley and locked the IP.
As soon as I pulled the valve cover to check the cam alignment, I knew we needed to go no further, the head was trashed.
Here is what I found:
It's too bad because the rest of the car is in good shape with very little rust (it's a relative term up here in Maine). So he needs a head at the minimum and the IP may be able to be repaired by retapping and using a slightly larger bolt (I have never done this though). We did not pull the head to see what damage may be underneath since it was already after 7 and I had a 2 hour drive home. I also did not do a compression check since it would yield very little information as it'd have to be torn down anyway.
My thought is the PO lost a timing belt at some point, did the mark & pray, then when it wouldn't run right tried adjusting the IP. It had obviously run on that cam for at least a little while judging by the condition.
He would like to keep the car and obviously doesn't have a lot of money since he's just getting started on a new job. I advised him to look for a donor car for a motor, or at the very least a new head. If anyone has a good take-off head they are willing to sell cheap, you may want to contact him. I'll keep my eyes open as well.