427 popping through the carburetors during acceleration and no power above 3500

[Robin Hood]

Hey Guy's,
I have attached a picture of the module inside the cap. Getting the cap out from under the carburetor was a bit difficult! no clearance 
Here is what i have done/checked today:
1- There is no control box for the ignition.
2- I have drained the fuel and replaced with VP Racing 110, thanks for the tip John, Also to the valve train questions / suggestions, I cannot say if it set for long periods of time without running or if they were ever decompressed during storage. I believe longest without running may have been 6 months?
3- I bought a new Ignition Module to swap out the one in the photo
4- Double checked firing order and it was correct
5- Made sure #7 & #8 wires are not running close together or crossing over each other in parallel path
6- Purchased piston stop to check TDC accuracy of my balancer/pointer
Tomorrow:
1- Replace Ignition Module
2-Replace Cap & Rotor
3- Check TDC / Set if needed
4- Recheck Timing and set to 15 degrees BTDC
5- Check valve lash and set to .020 cold?
5- Test run/drive to see how it runs (I will report back to everyone tomorrow)
i have attached a couple photos of the car ( I like my license plate, although right now it doesn't really apply )

[WConley]

Have you verified that the distributor advance is working?  I remember years ago a friend had a small-block Ford in his boat that was doing the same thing as your car.  Turned out the centrifugal advance linkage was stuck from corrosion.

It should be easy enough to check with a timing light while blipping the throttle.  You should see that timing mark move up a lot with rpm.

[Robin Hood]

It does move with acceleration and with quick revs.
Thank you for your help

[My427stang]

So that is an Ignitor 2, which is usually a decent module, but they can fail.  I don't see the small ground strap, it's not necessarily required, but I put them back to make sure it has another option to ground, especially if you have a good amount of the heat sink goop under the module.

If you could get it to misbehave with a timing light on it, it would be helpful to prove a bad module, but I think the TDC check should be the priority.

FYI - I have one act real unhappy and it was a burnt coil wire end too, couldn't see it, Ohmed OK, but couln't handle a heavy load high RPM.  Also would show up with a timing light if you can make it burble

[GerryP]

From you list, make one change at a time and test the result.  If you do all of it, you will never know where the problem was and if it comes back, you are back to square one.  Do the simplest and most likely thing first and work your way down the list.  Yes, it does take more time using a methodical approach to problem solving.

[rockhouse66]

It absolutely needs a ground wire between the breaker plate and Pertronix module.  Good eye Ross.

[machoneman]

FYI - I have one act real unhappy and it was a burnt coil wire end too, couldn't see it, Ohmed OK, but couln't handle a heavy load high RPM. 

Had that happen as well but once at the race track in our towed-to-the-track racer. Started fine and ran up to about 3K and then no more. Found out after some frantic checking I'd left the coil-side wire less than 1/2 into the deep tower of my Accel coil  back home in the garage! Pushed it in all the way and voila!

Point is, the brass terminals on the coil wire can sometimes prevent one from pushing in the wire enough to make good contact. Separately, does the car have a well-grounded ground strap from a head or the intake to the firewall or frame rail?

[Robin Hood]

Here is what I did today guy's.
1- checked TDC with new piston stop tool- was 1 degree different, I checked it again and was 1/2 degree so i called it good to go.
2- Replaced the Petronix
3- Replaced Cap & Rotor
4- Checked timing and was at about 18 but every few seconds the timing was moving 5-8 degrees. checked wires again all were tight and inserted into the can and plugs correctly, the car definitely ran better in the garage, so I took it for a drive and it ran much better, pulled hard with some spots of hesitation/misfiring but no back firing and the engine was definitely willing to run the RPM's up without falling on itself like it did the day before.
I was extremely happy with these results, however, I felt like there was something I was missing because it still had hesitation and a slight misfire.
So then I did the following:
5-Rest the timing to 15 BTDC, and I noticed out of the corner of my I a spark jumped from the number 5 spark plug connection on the cap to the front float bowl on the carburetor!so I took a small screw driver and touched the top of the wire at the cap and when I got close to the carb with the screw driver shaft it arced to the carb, I checked the #1 cylinder and same thing happen.
I checked all the wires and only #5 and #1 were arcing on occasion. so i attributed the misfiring to that.
6- I added a 1/16 rubber spacer between the cap and carburetor to help with insulation. I know they are most likely arcing to each other but I first wanted to try with a simple fix.
Started the car and it was definitely a different car, idle was more consistent, checked the timing still at 15 with an occasional blip but it was remarkably better.
Throttle response was considerably better.
Took it for a test drive and the normal acceleration was very good with a rare misfire but overall ran very well, turned around and heading back to the house i put my foot in it and it was unreal, don't even know what to say other than we taint in Kansas anymore!
It lost traction for about 30 feet and then pulled like a brute (with that rare misfire) all the way until i got out of it at about 4500 in 4th gear because I wouldn't have been able to slow the car down enough to make my driveway:)
there is still a small misfire that I think is the arcing between those two wires but it was very exciting to see my car
finally start to run very close to the way it should.
Today I bought a new set of wires and will install them tomorrow. hopefully that will fix the misfire issue, It is very tight between the top of the spark plug wires and the bottom of the carburetor, do they make a lower profile distributor ao i can gain some clearance? or should i add a small riser to the carburetors?
I want to thank each of you for all your input and direction to help me with my car! Everyone on this forum has been awesome and i really appreciate the help. It has also been very fun to work on the car with probably like 500 years of experience helping me.
thanks a lot gentlemen!
Also,I own a fishing tackle company and if anyone of you guys fish or has someone that is into fishing and need any lures send me a message and I will take care of you.
My web page is in my bio (acmetackle.com)
i will post the results after i replace the spark plug wires.
Than You!!

[WConley]

Glad to hear you're getting it it sorted!  If you had an MSD distributor you could run the low profile "crab cap", but I'm not aware of any that readily fit a stock-style FE distributor.

Swartz Racing makes a sweet offset distributor for dual four-barrel FE's, but I'm not sure how long it would take to get your hands on one.  That would be the hot ticket though!

http://www.swartzracingmanifolds.com/distributors/

[My427stang]

Good methodical troubleshooting, well done!  Not only are you getting there but you know your foundation is solid!

[Robin Hood]

Right on Guys! Thanks for the input.
So I do hear my rockers at idle, I’m wondering if I should reset the lash to .020 cold? As I mentioned I set them to .028 cold.
Also, I keep having a small leak on the bottom side of my water outlet connection to the pressure tank. The threads seam a bit sloppy when I replaced the gasket which didn’t help the leak. It looks like it’s coming out around the bolt hole.
Thanks for the help, it’s getting better everyday I make small adjustments.
 

[66FAIRLANE]

What cam is it? 028 sounds rather large. Is this an all iron combo? My experience (not as much as many here) has been that with stock adjustables, iron heads and block the difference between hot and cold lash was zero. With iron block, alloy heads and Erson rockers they open up 007 when hot.

[Robin Hood]

I am unsure of the cam as the person who built the engine died 10 years ago and all the engine details were lost.
It has cast iron components with what looks to be original rockers (they are stamped steel).
From what I was told internally the engine was built to original specs. But again I would need to check it

[My427stang]

Here are some rules of thumb

1 - On a solid roller or solid flat, the tightest lash you can run, without holding the valve off the seat at all operating temperatures is the best for parts longevity
2 - Lash is a tuning tool, less makes the cam act bigger, more makes it more mellow.

I would run them down to .018 cold, could even go tighter, but that's a good safe number.  I think .028 cold is crazy loose for alum heads and very loose for iron.  That leaves plenty of of lash ramp available to spin and accelerate the lifter

[Robin Hood]

Thanks Ross! I am going to adjust them tonight.