Howdy HoseHead,

It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate at the moment. I bulled my way through a similar situation many years ago. I urge you to find someone to listen to you. There is nothing that anyone can say that will lessen the burden for you. But, it is important to have a sounding board.

We can't deal with your overloaded plate here. But, with the combined experience of the Brickboard you can get that 245 running. :-)

...It makes a really loud back fire.

Check for crossed plug wires, carbon tracks, cracks, or moisture in the distributor cap.

Any other history? You mentioned an ebay purchase; was the car running when you got it or is this something that someone else gave up on?

...sitting for over a year...

If you haven't yet, drain the fuel tank and refill with fresh fuel. Change the fuel filter.

Check the water for oil and the oil for water. The presence of either fluid in the other's reservoir is sufficient evidence to pull the head.

Check compression to eliminate the possibility of any mechanical problem (stuck or burned valve, for instance) that needs to be addressed. You can't tune a car with a dead cylinder. ;-)

Once you have clean fuel and a known healthy engine you can troubleshoot the no start/hard start/bad running.

--sd
--
Mr. Shannon DeWolfe -- I've taken to using mister because my name misleads folks on the WWW. I am a 52 year old fat man. ;-)