Have a 1998 s70 non-turbo. 90,000 miles.

Timing belt has been changed and looks good.

New dist cap old one was broken split in two places
New rotor
Compression between 160-180 all cylinders
Turns over good and fast with out plugs.

With everything in place it turns over and then severely backfires. No start.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

my first guess would be that the timing belt didn't get put on correctly.

 

Did the backfire start happening after you replaced the distributor cap? If so, you have spark plug wires wrong. If the timing belt was on wrong you would have bent valves and hear the valves tapping to top of the piston

 

Turns out water in number 3 cylinder.