Hi, all.
I'm pulling out what's left of my hair, here, as this is a double kick in the groin for me.

I spent 12 years in the auto repair field with all the fancy scan tools and cabinet scopes and back probes and a warm garage to work in.
Now, a year after I quit 'the biz', I'm working with caveman tools - and banging a hammer on the fender and shouting isn't quite fixing this car.

I've got an 88 Mazda 929 2.0 V6, AT, CC, P/S, P/B, ABS, EGR, the works (for an 88), and about 215,000 miles.

The car ran fine last monday. Sat on tuesday (during a blizzard) and wouldn't start on wednesday (this is now friday).
I pulled a plug - it was drenched and worn out.....about three years ago.
I put in a new set and cranked it over - no go.

The new plugs soaked up, right away.
I pulled them again and dried them out. Tested for spark, compression, plugged air intake system, cranked the engine without the plugs to clean out the cylinders and tried again.

The plugs soaked up within a 3 second crank.

Now, sans my fancy scopes and what-not, I'm clueless as to what everything is doing.
I believe the Coolant Temp Sensor might think it's -50F.

Is there a pattern of these things going out?
Does anyone have another idea/tip?

The funny thing is: I dug my 72 Torino out of a 4ft snow drift and it started right up!
I'm using it as a jump start vehicle to maintain the Mazda's battery.

Thanks in advance.

 

Fixed. Somewhat.

I left the plugs out of the head over night and sat them on a vent to dry out, and to let the chambers air out.

It started right up in the morning (three days ago).

No problems, since.