I'm not familiar with, and don't have any experience with your vehicle, but the key clue in your question is that it will "fire" when applying starting fluid.
This clearly indicates that the problem is that fuel is not getting to the cylinders. There could be many causes for this, and without being able to do a "hands on troubleshooting" of your vehicle none of us on this site can tell you what that specific defect is.
Here are some of the things I can think of that could cause fuel starvation:
There are probably other causes which escape my mind right now.
crank sensor
Fuel? spark?
Crankshaft position sensor.
i would say you have an injector problem. usually a cloged one can cause that.
could be the starter or the solenoid, they arer pron to heating up especially when using headers, peace
if its cranking but not starting most likely fuel pump
Timing belt?? If there is a section of the timing belt with no teeth on it, it might be turning till it get to that point, slipping causing it to turn over fast, grabbing enough to turn over normal, but would not be able to start because it is now out of time.
could be disdributor
check all the fuses.
Replace the engine coolant temp sensor.
i had that problem and it was atune up. but wires and plugs didnt just do it. turned out it was a very bad distributor and rotor.
it is easier to pedal with longer cranks because you have more leverage but it is not necessarily better to have really long cranks.