This is a rather long story, so please bear with me. Recently bought a 65 Mustang with 351 W engine and top loader4-spd, engine ran really rough, at least one dead cyl., power was dead, slow acceleration, oil smoking on right bank, so just figered on engine replacement soon. Started to take a closer look at things and found timing off on dist. by one cly and incorrect firing order. Put the dist. back to correct place and rewired cap to 351-W firing order, still miss and poor power, took pass side valve cover off to check valve timing with crank damper marks, looks correct, but find a pushrod with both ends gone and lifter laying in valley. Removed intake and put the lifter back and installed new pushrod, noticed everything inside extremely clean, like new appearence, new valve springs and lifters and pushrods{double springs}. STill wants to missfire and spit back thru carb. Next pulled timing cover to find no timing chain, but new four gear set-upand peering into pan all looks new there as well. Timing marks were lined up perfect. Ran compression test, 160 to 165 lbs each cyl.. Car has old worn distributor with new looking pertronix inside, have ordered new distributor, will try it with points and if that works, transfer the pertronix later. I have done everthing I can think of , anybody else got any ideas what the problem may be if the new distributor doesnt fix it? Paladin_1888

 

Misfiring is normally related to ignition problems, so your dizzy and/or the pertrinix is most likely the culprit. Let us know how she runs after replacing the dizzy and points. The pertronix will usually fail due to not enough voltage getting to it. If it is hooked up to an old coil, you may have to hook it up to the + side of the ignition switch to get a full 12 volts to it.

 

Sorry forgot to mention, coil is accel super street, and car has torkerII intake and edelbrock carb.

 

If you have a cam for a 289/302 in the 351W then you use the 302 firing order. Just a thought.

 

ps, also for to mention the misfire is now more severe than it was with the lifter out of bore, and the spitting back thur carb didnt start till I had done all the other stuff

 

Tried the 302 firing order, wouldn't hit a lick.

 

I would run through the valves and reset the lash. They could be really off if you had a lifter out of the bore. Some too tight and some too lose. That will imitate ignition problems and a vavle that's hanging open will cause it to backfire through the carb.