First things first, when I rev up the engine under no load, it is flawless. When its in gear, it goes alright until about 2500 rpm, and then it sounds a lot like a miss in a cylinder. I thought that maybe it had something to do with the old junk yard distributer, so I replaced the WHOLE igniton system. I even upgraded to a billet distributer, put on 8.8 mm wires, and a 50,000 volt coil. It runs better, but still does it. If I lift my foot it levels off, but the miss is still there. I adjusted the carb the best I could, and even borrowed a carb from a similiar setup. If I retard the timing it seems to run better, but still does it.

 

EGR?

 

I don't have an egr valve I got the timing gun out for like the 100th time, retarded it a few and it was near perfect! I have never had a motor that was this sensitive to timing. Hopefully it wasn't just a fluke, as I ran outta test time cause the neighbours bitch about the noise (even idling )

 

Have you verified the timing tab is the correct one for the balancer, i.e. does the mark on the balancer show 0 deg on your pointer at TDC?

 

Yup. It seems it was actually a combo of the motor AND my tranny, the converter is cooked I got the tranny built, but didn't put in a good converter yet because I wasn't sure how wild the motor was gonna be, or if I was gonna spray it. I'll get her sorted out

 

Whats the mechanical advance setup on the distributor? stock springs and weights? How much timing are you running? Are you sure your balancer is accurate?