Thread: backfiring, stumbling and misfiring... please help!

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Ok,

I think I know the answer to my problem but here goes...

I have a 1963 427 T-Bird with a 427 center oiler C5AE-A heads. I've owned the car almost 2 years and have driven it maybe 100 miles in that time. When I bought the car it had a really cheap rebuilt Holley 750 on it which I replaced with a really trick Holley 750 punched out to 932 cfm by one of the east coast's best builder's. The 1960's Mallory dual point ignitiion was scrapped for a MDS 6A and a matching pro-billet distributor.

The package ran and performed flawlessly every time I ran it until today. I took it out of storage where it has been for a year and it ran great. , I drove it about 3 miles to my home for a wash and a little tlc. I hosed off the innner fenders and took care not to get the engine wet. The 6A box got a little wet and I wiped it down when I dried the inner fenders.

When I started the car to put it back in storage it didn't want to start. It backfired, sort of started and died. I killed the battery trying to restart it. This had never happened in the last 2 years of monthly starting and running but little or no driving with the exception of a few trips around town and 2 trips to the gas station.

My first impression was I got moisture in the distributor cap. I removed the cap and cleaned it well with WD-40 and reinstalled it. The symptoms persisted. I drove the car and it felt like it was running on 4 cylinders. I checked the carburator squirters and they were fine. The fuel filter was full and everything looked as it should.

I thought perhaps I'd simply fouled the plugs in trying to restart it so I removed the plugs starting on the right side. All 4 plugs on the right side (#1-4) were dry but covered with balck soot (carbon fouling). The left side (#5-8) were clean and perfect.

I got it in my head I had damaged the 6A box getting it wet so I replaced it. It was a second hand unit I had gotten from a buddy and it seemed like the most likely cause. It wasn't. $198. later the symptoms were exactly the same. I verified spark with an induction timing light on all 8 cylinders. All seemed normal and all cylinders showed spark.

Like I said I think I know the answer. I've been out of the hobby for awhile and I'm questioning what I thought I knew as evidenced by my $200 mistake earlier today. Anyone have an idea???