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I know you guys are probably getting tired of my engine problems but here it goes. My last problem was a combination of being too lean and a bad coil. The engine is a 73 400 originally a 2bbl, now has a Holley 670 Street Avenger, 452 heads, mild cam, and headers.

Now I have the engine running and barely drivable. The car refuses to idle below 1000rpm and tries to die when put in gear unless I feather the throttle, but once it is in gear for a couple seconds I can let go of the gas and it will run all day.

I am no expert so I set the timing by getting the engine to a steady 3000rpm with the vac advance disconnected then moving the dist until I got what i thought was the highest rpm by ear. The car revs fine with now load all the way to 4500rpm, which is as high as I want to rev it. When I suddenly let off the throttle it backfires.

I tried power braking to see how it performs under load. I hold both pedals to the floor and the car refuses to go above 2000rpm and runs very rough. i can't even get a tire to spin.

I then tried road-testing it. From idle to 3500rpm it runs really rough and makes no power at all. In "D" under WOT it shifts out of first at 3500rpm. If I put it in "1" the car screams from 4000rpm-5000rpm. I think I have an ignition timing problem but am not sure.

Thanks,
Dan

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Just from reading this, I might suggest 2 things to get you going. First, check the wires to the coil. It sounds like they are reversed. The wire from the distributor goes to the negative side of the coil. Second, buy a timing light if you don't want to use the one you have.
Good luck,
Larry