Hey everyone, I'm starting this thread to troubleshoot a problem I've been having with my 1983 F350, 351 windsor. I bought the truck December of 2022 from Texas, not in running condition, has been sitting in a field for 10 years more or less. It was a USAF truck, then donated to Texas forest service. It had 69,000 miles on it when I bought it, it now has about 72,000 miles on it. I had it hauled to NC to a shop to have it fixed up enough to be a daily driver. The motor was seized, the shop got the motor unseized, rebuilt the carburetor, it looks like they replaced the solenoid as well. Around September 2023, the truck was running pretty reliably, it did need some coaxing and pushing of the gas pedal to stay running but I know that's pretty typical of cold starts of trucks from that era, not my first time dealing with that. I then had the truck sent to an audio shop to have a stereo installed. They wired the stereo in series with the rest of the wiring in the truck, and noticed that sometimes the radio wouldn't turn on when starting the truck. They suggested that there could be something wrong with the fusebox that would cause that problem. What they ended up doing was wiring the stereo parallel to the truck wiring, so now I can turn the radio on independent of the truck. I haven't done anything to address the supposed fusebox issue. In early January 2024, I had a shop install a new brake master cylinder and brake booster because my master cylinder was leaking fluid and the brake light was on. One day while they were working on those parts, they started the truck to check the light, and the truck wouldn't crank; they thought the battery was dead. They ran a diagnostic on the battery, but it was perfectly fine. It was running at 12v, wasn't drained. They put the battery back in and the truck ran fine. Mid January, I drive the truck from NC to Maine in 1 day. It performs flawlessly, no issues at all. I do hit some gnarly potholes on the way. I drive the truck around for a few weeks, and I start having this problem where the entire truck just shuts off while driving, always at the beginning of my driving session. I go to crank it, and all I hear is a click when I turn the key. This has happened a few times, and it randomly starts back up. There was one time where it died, I wiggled the solenoid around, and it started fine. The most recent problem I've had is that the truck starts to turn over, but will not start. The battery is fine, all the lights and radio work fine. The truck just will not start. I have shop #1 look at what could be wrong, and this is the report they send: "pushed truck inside shop, truck would turn over consistently with no problems. checked battery, tested good. checked for spark at #5 wire, had spark. checked for spark at ignition coil, had strong spark. checked carb for fuel, could smell fuel and pulled all 8 spark plugs, found some plugs with cracked porcelain and some plugs were way under gapped almost touching electrode. also plugs were excessively fouled and smelled like fuel.pulled fuel hose from pump to be sure was pumping enough fuel just to verify and it was. replaced properly gapped new plugs just to be sure but still no start. then performed compression test at wide open throttle with all plugs pulled from motor, OEM spec is 150psi.. all cylinders have very low compression 80 to 75 psi. tried a wet compression test on a few of the cylinders with very low compression and it raised compression only by about 3psi. finally did a vacuum test at the intake port while cranking and engine has ZERO vacuum. did not to leak down test due to the conclusion that the rings are so worn that its pretty obvious with no engine vacuum while cranking shows that rings are worn and compression is too low for the engine to create combustion. also can detect fuel in crankcase after cranking for while. fuel is going past the piston rings into the oil pan. engine needs to be rebuilt or replaced., No MPI Performed, Diagnosis Of Concern Only" Shop #1 then recommends me to someone more specialized, Shop #2. Shop #2 suggests that it jumped timing, takes a deeper look, finds that the truck didn't jump timing, but found that the distributor was out of phase. He replaced the spark plugs, distributor, and distributor wires, phases the distributor correctly, and the truck starts up fine. Another thing that mechanic does is open the choke all the way on the stock 2bbl carb to help more with cold starts. I drive away from his shop on Friday, March 1st. I notice that it requires more pressing of the gas pedal to start than it did before, even after all this work to help make the engine run better, but the truck cranks fine, and runs fine once it is warm. Yesterday, I let the truck idle for about 20 mins during my lunch break at 1pm; it starts fine, idles fine. I get off work at 5pm, go to start the truck, and I experience the same problem again; the truck starts to turn over, but doesn't start. I try to turn it over three or four more times, but nothing happens. I then leave it alone to prevent any flooding or electrical issues from extensive key turning and pedal pumping. What is going on?