I put a brand new 355 tbi engine in my 91 rs about 2 months ago and havn't been able to drive the car very much because of tranny problems. Well earlier today the tranny problem was fixed (damn detent cable) and I figured since my engine had a little over 1k miles on it..I should see what it's got. I'm not one for driving crazily or at excess speeds but I just wanted to see if my car would shut off. It didn't..I only ran it like 120-130mph and let off...as I was slowing down I heard a loud backfire and and the car died. The engine did have compression but all it would do is whirl over. I got my dad to come check it out and he says it has to be distributor, coil, or something in that area because the plugs weren't getting fire. I was just wondering if there was any quick way to find out and maybe get your 2 cents on what's wrong.

 

Pull a spark plug out, attach plug wire, ground spark plug to something and look for spark when turning the engine over. Check if you're getting power to the distributor, check to see if the rotor is still in one piece. Just go down the line of checking things.