Car won't start, it turns but won't catch, smells like gas?

It's a 2000 Ford escort, I just changed the serpentine belt along with a bad water pump pulley, and the tensioner still needed tightening my wife went out driving it, right after she left the house, she got to a stoplight up the street and the car wouldn't move if she put gas in it, she got it pulled over and turned it off, and now it won't start anymore. All the electrical works, which if I understand right is the gas smell because it's giving the engine gas which is electrical, but why won't it turn over and actually start?

It's a 2000 Ford escort, I just changed the serpentine belt along with a bad water pump pulley, and the tensioner still needed tightening my wife went out driving it, right after she left the house, she got to a stoplight up the street and the car wouldn't move if she put gas in it, she got it pulled over and turned it off, and now it won't start anymore. All the electrical works, which if I understand right is the gas smell because it's giving the engine gas which is electrical, but why won't it turn over and actually start? The most common reason a car will crank but not start and you smell gas is you flooded it. Too much gas to the engine causes too rich a fuel mixture and the fuel won't ignite.

If you have throttle body injection (it looks kinda like a carburetor but sprays fuel down into the intake manifold) then press the gas all the way to the floor, hold it down and try to start. If it is a fuel injected engine then crank the engine without touching the gas pedal.

If neither of these work then let the car sit overnight and then try to start it as you normally would. One thing you can easily check while you are waiting is if the spark plugs are getting any fire. Pull the plug wire off any spark plug and lay it on the engine close to some bare metal. Then crank the engine. If it is firing right you should get a nice blue spark and a popping noise from the end of the plug wire. If it doesn't fire or the spark is weak (yellow instead of blue) then you have a problem in your electrical firing system and will probably need a mechanic to diagnose and fix it.

Another common problem on these late model Fords is they have rubber timing belts instead of steel chains and they have to be replaced about every 20,000 miles. The belt gets old and stretches causing the engine to get out of time. If it's far enough out of time your engine won't fire at the right time and you get raw gas fumes out the exhaust or as blow back through the carburetor.

On older model cars it's easy to check the timing on your engine. But these later model ones have electronic ignitions or coil packs and I have no idea how to check the timing on them. You will have to get a mechanic to diagnose and fix it.

I hope you just flooded it and it starts up easy.