timing?

Thanks, Paul. After looking at the firing patterns, it appears you MAY have a spark inaccuracy problem. Some terminals appear to be firing at the side of the terminal, due to early or late spark (timing). This can be caused by sloppy distributor bushings, bent shaft in distributor, worn lobes on the points, or misplaced magnets on the reluctor ring if its pertronix.

I'd put a timing tape on the damper, and make sure EACH cylinder is firing when it should. If #1 is 20 degrees at 2000 rpms, ALL should read 20 degrees at 2000 rpms. A v8 fires every 90 degrees of crankshaft rotation. For instance, 2 cylinders fire at TDC, just 1 revolution apart. A distributor machine will diagnose this also..and I just happen to have a distributor machine, if you can't find one near you.

A coil only makes as much voltage as is necessary to fire at a particular time. A cylinder under load/high combustion chamber pressure requires more voltage for the spark to jump the gap than a lightly loaded cylinder, say at idle. The old English car trick to clean a fouled plug..hold the wire away from the cap. The greater distance requires more voltage to jump, thus a hotter spark at the plug. Same with resistor plugs and wires. So no, the coil is a non-issue in this case.

Thoughts???