KADE wont start, bit long

[tryiian]

right so here`s the story, someone ... who will remain unnamed so that he isn`t murdered for incompetence, decided with it being winter and my radiator being 80% water, 20 af mix that he should go and drive the s14 with the radiator cap off until all the water boiled out. right, he said that he stopped the engine as soon as the temp guage went red, and that it did go all the way up suddenly... which is good because the engine wasnt run at overheatin temp for long, and horribly bad because whatever coolant there was keepin the engine cool, stopped flowing with the car off.

so, now that she`s been towed home: there`s spark, new wires and plugs, and she`ll crank and crank just fine. the strange thing is, sometimes if you blip the gas as you`re cranking, the whole car bumps like it`s gonna start. not that it ever does start. wellp, first guesses are the headgasket being burnt the flip up, the timing chain being off or in some other way messed up, he says the cams couldve snapped but iDont buy that, and a friend (and fellow ka s14 owner) has mentioned the bumping makes it sound like a fuel issue.

there isnt any protection that would keep the car from starting, is there? if so, wouldn`t it be kept from cranking at all?

i`ve never changed a head gasket on an engine, but iThink that iCould (and should) if iFollowed instructions by chiltons and reputable internet sources (240sx.org perhaps)

also, iIntend to compression test it soon... i`ll post the results when iHave them