I finally felt like tearing into the kitty today. The carb got cleaned out again, and I pushed a thin wire through every passage, followed by carb cleaner and air. After that, I started on spark plugs. I got the wrong size, so scratch that and move onto plug wires. I got a wire kit that Napa listed for a '93 F150 with the 351, and it was much more reasonable than kits I found on Summit. The only downside is the coil has a female socket instead of the male terminal, so I still have the old coil wire. I ripped all the old wires out and went to work with the new ones. I went to fire it up, and it popped and spit a flame out of the carb! After keeping an eye on it for a few minutes, I ran inside and grabbed the fire extinguisher. I also grabbed the cam card from my folder and found I had set the wires properly for a stock 351 cam, but this was a 289/302/351W cam. The wires needed to be changed to the 289/302 firing order, and then we were all good.
Now I felt like I was in good shape. I primed the bowls, gave the throttle three pumps, turned the key, and she fired right up! I let the engine warm up, and then I went to work with the vacuum gauge. It seemed to settle out around 14in-hg. I also tried out the tach/dwell meter, and it works! $10 spent for the better. After getting everything where it seemed happy, the needle bounced between 750-800rpm. Dwell read a steady 15 degrees at idle. I made a run down our road, and it continued to run well. So, I went to my part time gig to drop off my MNDOT med card so I can drive the bigger vehicles with trailers (in MN, the card is required for anyone who uses a trailer for commercial use). After that, I went to Napa and returned those plugs, but I also grabbed a valve cover breather to replace the front vent that had an open hose with nowhere to go. Then, I made the car’s first grocery run in 30 years or more.
15 deg dwell means your point gap is a bit wide. So the coil doesn’t have as much on-time as it needs to build up full energy. 26 to 30 deg is normal. 14” vacuum is low for a stock 351, but could be different for your cam. Glad to hear it’s running well!