68GTcarrie

I have a timing issue Im hoping someone can help point me in the right direction. My car is popping from the front and back and wont stay running but for a second or 2. This is the 1st time its been started since spark plug replacement but they were changed professionally.

So it could be timing gears or something in the distributer?

Flash70

Could putting the wires on the wrong plugs cause this? I don't know just an idea. Sometimes people forget that kind of stuff.

68GTcarrie

Wires to the plugs were changed 1 at a time so no mistake there, and the distributer wires havent been unplugged at all.

MetalEd

Were the wires themselves actually changed? I had a tuneup on my cougar, put in high quality premium wires. It would sputter like crazy, try to die at idle unless given gas to keep at almost 3k RPMs and wouldn't go over 25 MPH without jerking all over the place. Acted like it was fuel starved.
Mechanic swore it couldn't be the wires or the plugs, wouldn't even consider it since they were new. He told me I had a fuel problem. After 2 different PAID trips to the mechanic, I changed the wires myself. To a cheap set just to try it out. Exact same places they had them connected. Nothing else changed. Ran like new after that.

68GTcarrie

I worded that last post wrong.. the wires weren't changed, just the plugs. Should wires be changed too? The car was restored about 12 years ago in puerto rico, now I have it and replacing all the parts that are slowly going bad from the resto.

Car ran fine just sounded like it needed a carb adjustment but before I could fix that the radiator needed replacing. While it sat for 2 weeks waiting on the radiator to come in (they sent wrong one so took longer..) I replaced the engine to gauge feed, fuel filter, tightened a belt, and had the spark plugs replaced.

After getting the radiator in and starting it up the first time the carb was backfiring pretty bad and wont stay running. Sounds like its jumping all over the place, not just a misfire... if that makes sense.

67t5ponycoupe

When they cough and sputter like that is will be valve timing or ignition timing. Nobody messed with the valve timing so I would say it would have to be ignition timing. Specifically the firing order as mentioned before. Check to see that the correct plug wire is on the correct plug. I will bet that is the problem.

groho

I'm still learning, but I believe SBF has two firing orders depending on the motor. Make sure you're using the correct firing order. you probably just have two wires crossed.

289 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
302 (Pre-82) 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
5.0 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
5.0 HO 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8
5.0 Truck 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
351 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8

68GTcarrie

Ok so just an update... all the replies were correct as there were several things crossed and just off. Got it running bc yes a wire was crossed, so fixed that. It wasnt running right, sounded like timing was off and still running weak.. looked in the distributer cap and saw 1 post burnt out, replaced a few dry rotted vacuum caps, carb gaskets, replaced the rotor & distributer cap, timed it down from 15 to 10. Finally got it back using all 8 cylinders and runs better than the first day I had it...such a cleaaaan burn now i love it.

Thanks for all the help!

OCHOHILL

I like it when there is a happy ending to the story. Kudos to the OP for posting what solved the problem. I am trying to chase down my own issue using the search engine. I have found 2 similar threads, both with open endings. The threads are quite old.

hiboostwoody

And your car problem is..........???? Can't help fix it if we don't know what's broken.