Thread: 1979 Ford 302 Engine problem

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Now I'm no expert but from my experience with a 302 I had in my Cobra I too experienced misfire and plug fouling between about 2000-2500 rpm. The engine was a mild performance rebuild, a bit hotter cam, roller rockers, etc.., induction was an Edlebrock performer and Holley 600 It would start and idle fine and about the above rpm would start to misfire on the same cylinders as yours, above 2500 or so it would just scream with no problems.

What I discovered after a long frustrating period was that it was a combination of too low of timing, I finally went to 14*initial, too cold of plug, and most especially a bad distributor and coil, curve would begin to drop out about 2k rpm . Once I replaced the distributor,coil, plugs and advanced the timing, then re-tuned the carb( I started getting a low rpm "stumble" then), I cured the problem.

The whole time I was thinking that when we rebuilt the engine we had done something wrong in the reassembly and was planning on pulling the engine again. Basically the engine had all new components, timing gear, chain, camshaft, Alum. heads, valves, pushrods, pistons and rods.
I'd check your dist.and ignition first off, then the carb...