Engine idle rough/smokes

[Dodgerdallas]

My 440 problems started with a Firecore ignition setup in which the distributor went south in less than a thousand miles so I put a stock elect dist from the 70's,the firewall mounted unit that plugs in (sorry don't know what its called) and a MSD Blaster coil, the engine ran ok but cut out from time to time at higher rpm's,one day the engine simply died after 20 minutes of driving and wouldn't start-checked carb and it was getting gas, the coil was very hot but away from heat sources, next day fired up fine as if nothing ever happened, ran fine until it reached operating temp then dropped rpms's,running a bit shakey and began smoking light blue,rich eye burning smoke-could the wrong coil/ignition system setup be causing this? as stated before no problems until I began replacing ign components, could the coil be too much for the stock type dist?

[69wannabe]

Which firecore distributor did you purchase and if it did go bad there is a warranty on their parts. The ready to run distributor doesn't need a resistor to operate but you have to run the recommended coil with that distributor. The plug and play which is what I have does need the resistor and the MSD blaster 2 coil is a good coil to use with the firecore set up like this. I have had my set up for a couple of years now with no problems (knock on wood) which consist of a plug and play firecore distributor and wire set, an MSD blaster 2 coil and matching resistor  and NGK spark plugs.

I would check the spark plugs and see what they look like and go from there. Where is your timing set? If the timing is off it will run poorly and foul the plugs. Also you may have carburetor troubles causing it to flood and run poorly. Lot's of things can cause an old car to run crappy, just because it's old doesn't mean it's always an easy fix......