Ok, got tail-pipe on it. Also got a bottle of Sea-Foam in the tank and roughly 1/2 tank of go juice.

Just started looking things over today "again"..... Pulled the plugs, they be Autolite instead of Champion. PS bank were somewhat hard to turn out/in, and #6 was really hard turning. Not sure what's going on there, but I'm thinking I need to get a thread chaser in there, "and" get the right plugs... Plugs were clean, but the #2 plug was pinkish in color, not much, but it was there. The rest where white. Believing that there's "sheap chit" on here as far as cap/rotor/wires.. I'll get good ones on there soon. Wire for #2 won't "snap" onto the disty cap, and there's no "Brand name" on the wires. Me, I prefer Beldon wires...........

Just for kicks-n-giggles, I checked the fireing order and wire routing to the plugs. Hmmmmm.... Seems that the disty cap is on backwards, (say what???), and so are the plug wires. #1 is where #4 should be.. Right firing order, just 180* out of what the Chiltons is showing. Didn't notice it before when I was chasing the wires. Just noticed that they where wrapped around eachother. Engine didn't seem to miss any, so I didn't "think" to check for proper cap orientation.

Okay,,,, brought #1 up on compression, checked for proper rotor alignment. Well,,, it be retarded a few degrees. Reset disty, installed cap, re-ran wires to plugs. Fired her up, seems to want to idle smoother now, not a great difference, but I can tell that it's smoother.

Just for the 'ell of it, I popped the radiator cap. Why do people "insist" on totally filling the radiator??? There is to be an air pocket at the top of the radiator, it ain't supposed to be totally full of coolant....... Over-filling the radiator will cause engine to overheat, as there's no room for expansion of the coolant. You need an air pocket to create pressure, no pressure, stuff runs hotter.... (I had looked at the recovery tank when 1st buying truck, level was right so I left it at that and didn't look at radiator level... Shame on me.......) Cooling system flush/re-fill is on the top of the to do list now.....
Going to drive it to work tomorrow, we shall see...........

 

so you sound pretty mechanically inclined... do you have any other vehicles? trucks perhaps?

 

Been driving the truck to work all week, seems I've cured the problem.

No More Back-firing/Popping thru exhaust!!!!!!!!

to serialscooby;

As to the mechanical abilities question, I've been wrenching on my own stuff for close to 40 years, I'm 53. Learned most of the stuff just from doing it, but my Dad was my mentor. I rebuilt my 1st engine at the age of 12.

As to other vehicles;
Drivers......
'93 Pontiac Sunbird LE, 3.1/auto, droptop

'86 Subaru BRAT, 1.8L DualRange 4-speed 4WD

Ones that are in various stages of repair...
'82 Subaru BRAT, 1.8L DualRange 4-speed 4WD. Being restored.

'88 Subaru XT6, 2.7L 5-speed AWD. Was going to restore it, but found it to be to rusted out. It be a parts vehicle now.

'88 Subaru GL10 Wagon, 1.8L OHC 2WD. Various ideas floating around in the grey matter on this one. It may get the goodies from the XT6

 

Been driving truck for 2 weeks now with no more running issues. YEA!!!!!

Did pop a heater hose on Wednesday though. Of course it had to be windy, snowing, and down right cold out. Just cut hose off and re-clamped it. Getting new hoses today.