cant figure it out

truck keeps stalling, backfiring, not idling, etc.

little backround here, 88 2200 bought the truck, with 50000 miles on a rebuilt motor. the dude replaced the fuel pump and the fuel tank. drove it for a month, the truck dies. figure out that the fuel pump was loose and he used two gaskets. felt safer to replace the pump with another fresh one. ran great for a week, truck dies again. figure out that the sending unit in the tank is bent and wont get fuel. put a new sending unit in and new rubber lines as they were collapsed. ran awesome for 3 months, then the truck sputters, stalls, wont start. did a tune up - new plugs, wires, pcv, air cleaner, msd coil (previously had a blaster 2 on it, changed to a high vibration coil), cap, rotor, fuel filter. ran good for about a week. cruising along and the truck starts breaking up real bad and when you really beat on it, i mean like near redline shifts, its fine. changed the cap back to the old one, thinking that the new one was cross arcing, didnt help, went to change the plugs and they are fowled out?! letting the truck idle (when it wants to) for 5 minutes there is a pile of sout from the tailpipe (no cat, flowmaster muffler 2.5 piping, pacesetter header)

so my question is, obviously the truck is running insanely rich all of the sudden, and fowling the plugs out (2 sets both fowled out). so is the carb running really really rich out of nowhere, or is the distributor ignitor failing, not giving it enough spark. oh and a side note, when idleing and faintly when driving, the motor has a miss in it.

please some ideas, im tired of throwing money away at this truck

its your timing and u can adjust it with the distributer but if the timing doesnt line up then ur cam timing is off

why would it be off now? it hasnt changed the whole time,

the dude has the distributor adjusted all the way toward the radiator (retarded timing??)

any more ideas??

Try a hotter plug. Dont rule out the msd coil i have had brand new ones die after 4 races...

what happens when you move the distributor back a little. when I installed mine i put it were it ran its best right in the middle so I would have lots of room to tune it

i could try that, didnt want to blindly change the timing without a light. im sure right in the middle is close to where it should be, im sure by turning the dist. he was trying to get some more out of the truck.

draw a line across the dist and the dist housing.

mine too runs best in the middle, actually a lil more advanced it purrs like a kitten

have you tried changing the jets in the carb