Weak/No Spark R35 Coils

Dealing with a bit of a weird one. Setting up my Emtron KV8 on a 2JZ-GE VVTI. I was trying to verify crank index offset but wasn't able to get the timing light to trigger. I pulled the #1 plug and laid the spark plug grounded on the engine while someone else cranked the engine. I still wasn't getting a good enough spark/wasn't getting any spark to trigger the timing light, but if I left the coil in free air (not grounded) I got great spark. I have verified battery voltage at connector, ground at connector, and the coil settings (which I plan on triple checking). I checked a couple other plugs to make sure it wasn't just the #1 hole. Same issue. Plan on grabbing another set of plugs as I read bad plugs can lead to a similar issues. Hoping it's a simple setting issue that I screwed up, but not finding anything yet.

Do you have a ignition test mode that you can manually trigger the coils without cranking the engine? Do you have a ground cable between your engine and chassis?

Sometimes the current draw of the starter can lead to weak spark. Did you check the voltage at the coils while cranking?

Manually firing coils gives the same results. I did test voltage while cranking and it followed battery voltage. Which dropped to 11.7v-11.5v while cranking. Have two ground straps. One on head and one on block.

I’ll post dwell settings when I get back to car. I followed PRPs dwell settings.

Checked dwell setting, and I must not have saved as they were standard setting. I have since applied the OEM R35 dwell settings that is in Emtron.

I double checked timing again as I though I might have been 360 off, but that was not the case. Cam and Crank sync seem to read well. I am now down to thinking it's a wiring issue at my coils. Going to move my coil ground somewhere else and re-check my 12v feed to coils, especially while cranking. After checking timing it sputtered to life for a split second and died. It will crank for a few seconds, give a quick light cough as if one cylinder almost tried firing, then continue to crank.

edit: Running hall sensors and when it reads the teeth it pulls down to ground.

Are you able to check the timing with a timing light while cranking now? Did you make sure that your ignition offset is synced with the timing light?

I did check that. I added 360 to the offset to make sure it followed suit and it fired while cams on exhaust stroke. Changed it back and verified it all looked good.

Apparently the spark wasn't the cause of my no start condition. After spending some time I found the engine getting way too much fuel. Took a bunch out of base VE table and the engine started and idle. Needs quite a bit more work as it idles rough and doesn't want to rev very well. Plan on changing spark plugs before next go around.