Car won't start

In response to your follow up question, no, the Check Engine light has never come on during this issue nor for anything other than the normal sequence when the key is put to the on position.

Doesn't the ECT sensor just control the cycling of the cooling fan as not to allow the engine to over heat? Would this sensor interfere with the ability of the engine to receive spark or fuel? Also, I tried to elude to this in my original posting but during the process of getting it started with this issue it sputters and fires intermittently but won't completely start up. Would a defect in that sensor cause it to behave in that fashion?

That makes sense as its consistent with the starting behavior I've described. I had also tried the starting fluid method as well which has worked somewhat in the past instances of this problem with mixed results but lately heating the engine compartment has seen more of a consistent way to overcome the problem. I will focus my efforts in the areas you've highlighted as the ECT sensor is an inexpensive part and the coil can be isolated with testing and its the least expensive of the distributor components.

If I have any further questions I'll continue the thread otherwise I will followup if I'm able to rectify the issue so you have more knowledge in future cases. Thanks.

I wanted to followup on the post and get your thoughts about some of my findings thus far.

*Note: the weather hasn't been cold enough to recreate the issue since the last post.

Following your suggestion I used the service manual to find the parameters for testing the ignition coil since I was leaning away from it being a fuel mixture problem. I got the following readings from the coil tests:

Resistance between A & B terminals = 1.3 ohms (spec should be between.68-.77 ohms which is out of spec)

Resistance between A & Secondary terminal = 15.9k ohms (spec should be between 12-19 ohms which is in spec)

However, at the time of the testing I got a temperature reading of 90 degrees from the metal portion of the distributor housing and the manual suggests that the optimum temperature for testing the coil itself should be at an ambient 68 degrees. Do you think the slight increase in temperature would cause the one reading to be out but the other remain in? Do you think the out of spec reading is accurate therefore rule that the coil (likely being under-powered) is the issue?

Also, while reading through the service manual I found a section dedicated to the ECT. It says that this sensor on this model is the on/off type in that once the coolant temperature reaches 100 degrees it closes the circuit and suggests a warm engine mixture. That would lead me to believe a way to rule out a defect in this component would be to disconnect it when the issue occurs forcing the ECM to see a cold reading. Would you agree this would be a way to eliminate this component from the problem?

Your thoughts.