Went to Georgia and bought a car, ran fine there,shipped it to California and won't start. Had heavy smell of gas so thought it was flooding, shut off fuel line and let it dry out. Tried starting with ether and got nothing. Had spark to plugs. Any suggestions before I send to a shop? Engine turns over fine.

How do the plugs look? Are you getting a nice blue spark across the electrodes on all the plugs? Sounds like they might be fouled. Had a 440 with a thermo-quad and if you pressed more than halfway to the floor to set the automatic choke, it would flood every time. Did you pull the plugs and try spinning it over a few times to dry out the cylinders? Have you checked the timing to see if maybe the distributor might have moved? If you have spark, fuel and the timing is right, it should run. I've had high mileage engines flood and wash the oil from the cylinders, causing and already worn engine to lose compression. Had to squirt a little oil in each cylinder and spin it over a few times before putting the plugs back in.

I second the spark plugs, put new one's in before throwing in the towel and sending it to a rip off shop, I mean repair shop.

fog the cyls. change plugs. It'll start

I did pull one plug and it was fouled pretty bad. I'm going to replace all the plugs and see what happens. Thanks

Was the key left on was the battery dead? Is it
possible the ballast resister got burnt out from key being left on? Just a thought.