Miata won't start - need ideas

Not mine, but I'm posting this for a friend. I got this note from his GF yesterday:

"my friend (who bought the miata about a month ago) has experienced a power loss and now the thing won't start. Dave's been working on it...the mass air flow sensor was taken apart and soddered back together, a wire had come loose. so, dave replaced it with a used one and the power sorta got better but not 100%. then he found out about replacing plugs and wires. so, now it's not starting but everything's getting the juice it needs. it's a 90 i believe. the order was set right. Dave checked the timing and it's at about 8 degrees. he found out that most people set their timing at about 17*, what do you think/know about that? It started today but was missing like crazy. yesterday was cold and wet (typical new england day in CO). tomorrow is supposed to be warmer so he'll fuss with the timing more then"

And today: "The crank pulley bolt was loose when I began this exercise. I removed the crank pulley and the timing belt sprocket. The keyway was intact with no visible damage. I checked valve timing before i removed the timing sprocket adn the valve timing was accurate. I reassembled and torqued the bolt to the specified 85 ft lbs. (Really, most cars are in the 200 ft lbs range). Anywhoo. I got it to start this afternoon, much warmer and drier than yesterday. I will give you a short rundown of what i have tested, all of these tests have passed. The cat is not plugged, Fuel pressure is at 38 psi at idle and goes to about 45 psi when revved,fuel pump will produce about a liter of fuel in about 25 seconds, Cam timing is correct, compression is between 125 and 138 psi on all four cyl. with less than 10% leakdown. Injector resistance is within spec, coil pack resistace checks out and there is a strong blue spark on all four cylinders. Tps sensor, O2 sensor, MAF sensor, and coolant temp sensor all fall within specification when tested. There are no codes in the self diagnostic system and I have unplugged sensors to verify that the self diag. is working properly. I have spoken softly, said nice things, and even tried petting the valve cover but to no avail. This car is driving me crazy. Unless someone can give me any new insight I will begin working back through my previous testing procedures to insure I have not overlooked anything. one to quiz the experts: Has anyone tested the measured ohm values produced by the MAF sensor across its sweep? The book only gives me fully closed and fully open readings. Is the resistance drop linear over the full sweep or is it supposed to jump up and down like the three that I have tested do. What does the computer look for. Does any one have a book on this fuel system similar to the Bosch Engine Management Diagnosis and Theory book from yesteryear. HELP!!!"

Between my husband and myself and a few Miata-geek friends we suggested that this car may be a short-nosed crank, and that could be the issue. We also suggested a few obvious ideas, like re-checking all the work done thus far, and also checking air and fuel filters and asked when the timing belt was done last. It's also been suggested that he re-check the cam angle and make sure that is correct too.

Any ideas that we might have missed?( I suggested they head over to Flyin Miata, but its apparently on the wrong side of the state from them.)

It's tough to test the resistance of the airflow meter. If the car's running, assume it's a good one :) Having to resolder the wires means that someone tried to remove the connector improperly, so the question is what was being done at that time?

Stock timing is 10 BTDC. It's pretty common to advance it further, 14 is most popular.

If it's the original engine, it's a short-nose. But if the keyway looks good, that's fine. I don't like the loose crank bolt though, that'll damage any crank. There should be Loctite 242 on that bolt when it's assembled.

So, let me see if I have this straight. The car was running, but at 90%. Then the plugs and wires were changed, and the car won't start anymore. Does it have fuel? Does it have spark? How is Dave setting the timing if the car won't run? I could start throwing out random suggestions (that's what usually happens on this kind of thread), but let's try to narrow things down a bit further first.

A 1990 Miata at 5000' and 90% power is a momentum car for sure :)

Thanks Keith - Honestly, this is a convoluted chain of info - This is a friends husband, fixing their friends car. I don't even know the chick who owns the car, but my friend knew I had a Miata, so she asked me for help. I'll tell Dave to register here, since this site is right up his alley anyway, :)

Either that or get him to call the FM tech line tomorrow: 970 464 5600. I won't be there, but one of the other guys will help figure this out.