Purchased truck for 1200 dollars, perfectly strait, nice ride. Ran and idled perfect, was able to drive home. Engine missed alot, and when accelerating had a major loss of power, could floor it and just barely hold speed. Truck came with a cooler full of parts (cap, rotor, fuel pump, wires, plugs, filters). Figured the tune up would fix the problem. Did not. Just recently dealt with a similar problem in a recent camaro purchase where the distributor was 180 off, so I loosened it up, flipped it around, no good. Returned it to the original position, and couldnt get it to idle at all. Set timing mark to TDC while holding finger on number 1 cylinder to confirm TDC, checked rotor position was correct (which it was). Double and triple checked plug wire locations, firing order is correct, and rotor is pointing at cylinder one at TDC. More then slightly confused as to why it doesnt run the same as before I flipped the distributor around.

Hope there is something im overlooking, any advice will be appreciated.

 

Does it have points or HEI distributor? Maybe it needs new points. Maybe the carb needs rebuilt or adjusted. Check all vaccuum lines.

 

First order of business on a dead miss situation is a complete and through compression test to see if it's even 'gonna' run.

You must see at least 125 lbs for a cylinder to hit.

Allan