I've been a member here for a long time but its been years since I've been active. The reason for my new found activity is because I recently acquired a 76 F100. It has (and some supposedly) a 302 (from Advanced Auto), C6, 600 Holley, .471 lift cam, bored .30, and the distributor has been upgraded to non-points (electronic?) oh and an accel coil.
I adjusted the float bowls on the carb the other day and while i was cranking and so forth with the coil wire on and off I noticed it was corroded and there was corrosion inside the coil. I ordered new wires and a coil.
Yesterday I was trying to find TDC the old fashioned way and mark it because the timing pointer is missing. I went to crank the truck and turned over twice and I heard a POP! I turned it off and went to see what happened. It smelled like something burnt but I didn't see anything except that the coil wire wasn't connected all the way. It was just kind of sitting in there. Does anybody think it arc'd or was it something else. I've decided to wait till my new wires and coil get here and installed before messing with it.
Also, since it's a 302 bored out to a 306 with the cam, should I use the standard 302 firing order or the 351? ( I received the new wires and took all the old ones off assuming 302, realized I ordered the wrong ones, and put the old ones back on in 302 fashion. Didn't pay attention to what they were before.

 

Well the POP turned out just to be backfiring through the carb. When I took the plug wires off and put them back on in the right firing order I messed up. I think, can't be a 100% certain, when I pulled off the old wires the #1 cylinder wire was on the #6 terminal of the distributor which basically diagonally across from the #1 on the distributor cap. Any ideas?

 

That's tough for someone to figure out over the internet. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that the noise could be caused by backfiring due to plug wire misrouting; however note that the engine will run very rough if at all in this case.

It's unlikely that you'd hear a loud "pop" because of the spark jumping due to an improperly seated plug wire. The most common time any sort of wire makes a "pop" sound is if the wire (not a plug wire) fuses out, in which case the noise you hear is from the wire literally snapping in half.

 

#6 was actually #1 and it runs now, all is good.. I actually got some good useful advice from Ford Truck Fanatics...