Compression numbers:

#1 = 71
#2 = 81
#3 = 86
#4 = 94

Engine cold, throttles closed. Not sure I want to warm the thing up as it runs pretty poorly, and I have seen other posts where these sort of "cold" numbers have been in the ballpark. Valves properly adjusted.

I think I am going to re-re-re-investigate fuel and spark systems...

I have a 2056 w/ Dellortos.

I run 60 idle jets down from 65's, main jets are 132, air 180, vents 34

I had a problem once where a cylinder didn't respond to idle screw adjustment. It turned out to be a vacuum leak at the head. You might pull the left side manifold and take a look at it. I always smear a thin coat of grease on those gaskets when I install the manifold now. The gaskets that are attached to the plastic/phenolic spacer are paper thin..

Carbs cleaned (again). All jets and jet holders blown out and inspected for clogs. None found. Pressurized air through carb bodies at the idle jet and main jet orifices (not super high pressure). Manifolds and manifold gaskets inspected. No (obvious) leaks. Gasoline completely drained from car. New gas added.

All plug wires inspected, dizzy cap, rotor points inspected. All good.

Nothing. Cranks and will not fire. Arghhhhh, it just gets worse the more I try to fix it. I am going to start calling it bad names very soon.

For now I am going to search for the bottom of a bottle of Bourbon and let this thing sit for awhile. Frustrating as all crap.

Actually, it might be a good thing that it's stopped all together. Perhaps there was something on the brink of failure before and all your fussing pushed it over the edge.

Time to get back to basics. Air? Check. Fuel? Sounds like it! Spark???

I'm sure you'll come at it with a fresh perspective and it'll be obvious.

Keep us posted and good luck!

Have you tried to replace or cross the spark plug?
I've seen spark plugs that worked good outside the engine but failed in the cylinder.

Well, its the raintray. I had been running without the raintray since I installed the engine, all good. I wasn't sure that the raintray would clear the carbs so left it off the car. I Installed the raintray shortly before I took the ill-fated drive (since the car was running so well, and since I had determined it would not interfere with the carbs) where I got a little air and thing s started going wrong. So, tonight I took the raintray back out of the car to make a little more room to work. On a hunch I tried starting her and she ran. Almost perfectly.

Sheesh. Now, I 'm very sure that there is still work to do, and also sure that the raintray is not the real problem here, but I may never re-install it. Just when I was going to have it finished in faux carbon fiber via water transfer coating...

OK, so I was joking (mostly) about the rain tray. I took a break from working on the car for a bit, was just pissed at it and I have several motorcycle projects going also. Yesterday I replaced the points, condenser, and rotor. Fired right up and ran. I put 60 miles on it right away.

Not running as smoothly as before this all happened. She idles a little rough (carb synch), and power seems slightly down (ignition timing), but I can deal with those items.

Nothing to see here...

The phenolic spacer/gaskets are meant for an FI set up. The best gaskets to get for a carb set up are:

http://vwparts.aircooled.net/HP-Type-4-Int...fold-gasket.htm