All Small Six 200 was sitting for a long time.

[196158A]

I bought a '68 200 that "was a pull from a mustang v8 swap" Don't know how long this person had it in his shop I've had it abt 6yrs. Last fall I put it in an early Falcon & all it wanted to do is backfire thru the carb. Checked the ignition timing, tdc, crank pulley, firing order, the coil and some other things. The thought it might be good idea to do a compression test and found cyls 1 and 3 low like 85 & 75psi low. It was getting cold out and my garage it's heated so I waited for warmer weather. Not too long ago I grabed a block of wood and a claw hammer and carefully tapped on cyls 1 and 3 intake valve rockers. The results where good as I gained abt 55psi on both. May this is the key to the problem! Fat chance still backfires and won't run. The question I have is this there seems to be a bit of a disconnect because the rotor if it is centered where the spark plug wire is connect above, the points nowhere near the top of the lobe. If I turn the distributor housing the point are on the lobe then when I put the cap on the rotor is between two of the plug wire connection or two cyls.

Next I pulled the distributor tried repositioning the shaft but it didn't make any difference always came out the off by the same amount. OK so then I thought timing chain/sprockets. There's no rad stuff on the front of the engine so access to wasn't bad at all. Whoever put this cover on last go a round must have used a grease gun the apply the gasket glue. I've got maybe 1/2" of slop in the chain. Is that a lot? Enough to cause the rotor being out of sync. Or am I chasing a red herring

Tnx!
Terry

 

[DON]

That is quite a bit of slop, but not sure that is your problem. Since you have it off, go ahead and replace it. A couple of thoughts on the backfiring, I would put in new points and condenser. Double check the firing order. I am wondering if you might have some valve’s sticking as well, since it has been sitting so log. Maybe put each cylinder at bottom dead center, then some PBBlaster or another light lub on the stems and do the hammer thing. Get some lube in there and then when it starts they will be oiled with real oil. Then give it another go

 

[drag-200stang]

Make sure the the rotor is put on right and the cap.

 

[Frank]

Verify that the rotor is not 180* off. That will produce no run and intake backfire every time. You're making spark. somethin is letting the fire ignite while an intake valve is open. Valves stuck or timing way off.