23 hours ago, thetwood said:

. After coming to a stop to pull into our neighborhood, the car didn't respond well finishing into home. As I'd give it a bit of gas it would sputter, then catch when I gave more.

Also, don't think my temp gauge is working correctly, as it said I never went over 120 for the entire trip... Another thing to check. Just put in a brand new temp gauge sensor, but may need to check it more now.

superlen makes a good point.  The real issue might be that the engine is not getting to operating temperature.  Or, maybe, the coolant level is low so the sensors are not reading actual engine temperature.  Or, both sensors are fine but you have a flow issue in the thermostat housing.

Anyway, temperature and the way the engine runs are your concerns.  Plugs much darker than those have run fine in many of these engines.  Check your cooling system closely, make sure coolant is flowing and the thermostat is actually closing, and that it's actually there.  Many people have found that a PO removed their thermostat, trying to cure an overheating problem.  The thermostat is actually a "heating" device, stopping coolant flow until the engine is warmed up.

Okay. Not sure what happened. Before going on the test drive, everything was running really well. Had the idle around 800. Timing looked good.  Ran smooth. Now, idle is low, timing is delayed (I can just get it to 0 but run out of room to turn the distributor). Running really rough. Doesn't sound good. I have no clue what changed, but I'm at a bit of a loss.

I did verify that the temperature gauge in the car is working. Temp will go up to ~150 before the after market fan turns on. It'll reduce to around ~140 before it turns off. Tested with a thermometer in the radiator with the cap off. Gauge in car matched temp seen. Seems like it's running cool. I don't know how to change that.

The fan temperature sensor might be adjustable.

No idea on the timing

Have you checked for a crudded up gas tank?  Ran great for a few minutes is one of the top symptoms.  My car would make it halfway around the block then I walked the other half. 

15 hours ago, Patcon said:

The fan temperature sensor might be adjustable.

No idea on the timing

I'll look at the fan and controller and see if I can find anything. Thanks for the direction.

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

Have you checked for a crudded up gas tank?  Ran great for a few minutes is one of the top symptoms.  My car would make it halfway around the block then I walked the other half. 

When we first started the project we dropped the tank, cleaned and coated the inside (don't remember with what, but it's read and rubber like). I had an inline filter after the tank, but removed it when we were struggling to get the fuel pressure up to norm. When I removed it, there was some debris in it, which I was kind of surprised by given the work we did on the tank. I was hopeful that the filter had caught anything we didn't catch relining, but maybe not.

What's the best way to check for this? I can put an inline filter in again. I can replace the regular fuel filter. Other things to do/check?

Use compressed air and blow into the tank from the lines in the engine

 

The tank coatings have to be absolutely cured before you add gasoline to the tank. I would add the inline filter back to monitor what is coming out of the tank.

timing maybe do to rough low idle, mech advance not working do to low speed. Sounds like fuel issue, get the pressure gauge back on in and confirm you are getting static pressure of 36 engine off. I once had the same problem, was out of gas, took my wife to tell me that.

Don't forget that you can buy a clear fuel filter and add it to the incoming fuel line under the hood. That will give you a visual to see if anything's getting into the line.

19 hours ago, thetwood said:

Okay. Not sure what happened. Before going on the test drive, everything was running really well. Had the idle around 800. Timing looked good.  Ran smooth. Now, idle is low, timing is delayed (I can just get it to 0 but run out of room to turn the distributor). Running really rough

Sounds like something might have come loose in your distributor.  You said "good", maybe there's a number associated?  You measured a zero later.

If timing went from good to zero then something has changed.  Retarded timing will make the engine run like crap.

5 hours ago, thetwood said:

When we first started the project we dropped the tank, cleaned and coated the inside (don't remember with what, but it's read and rubber like). I had an inline filter after the tank, but removed it when we were struggling to get the fuel pressure up to norm. When I removed it, there was some debris in it, which I was kind of surprised by given the work we did on the tank. I was hopeful that the filter had caught anything we didn't catch relining, but maybe not.

What's the best way to check for this? I can put an inline filter in again. I can replace the regular fuel filter. Other things to do/check?

When the filter's screen gets clogged from suction it'll run poorly. When that falls away it'll run good for a bit then repeats. I used that red liner too, Red Kote. But it needs to cure, as Patcon says, for at least a week, the longer the better. Put a fram G-2 before the main filter under the hood. Frams are $3, OE metal ones are $15.