My son and I just got finished with a rebuild on a F-O-R-D 351 Windsor engine. We did it pretty much by the seat of our britches, because we could not find a decent comprehensive manual to go by; the best I could come up with was one on a CD, and it was only very basic - stuff that I already knew. Well, anyway, we got the engine back in the car, all dressed out, and tried to start it; couldn't get the thing to start with any sort of regularity, or to stay running. It popped, a backfired, hisssed, caught fire, farted, and generally frustrated the hell out of me. I double checked the entire setup, valve lash, firing order, we rebuilt the carb, nothing worked. Last night, my son came home from work with a new haynes manual for all Ford engines, and I thought: "OK! Another generic bit.". But he was looking through it, and says to me: "Are you sure the firing order is right?"; "This shows that there are two different firing orders for the small block engine."

So, we changed the plug wires around, and, lo-and-behold, the thing fired right up as sweet as could be.. AUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!

WHY DON'T THEY USE ONE STANDARD FOR ALL ENGINES OF THE SAME TYPE??? AAAAHHHHHGGGGGHHHH!!!.

Rant over. Thanks for putting up with me.