Grab a hold of your harmonic balancer pulley and wiggle it back forth.Listen for noise in the chain.

 

From what I've read on this forum if it's not AC delco ignition parts, all kinds of funky things can happen. But that running smoother than normal thing is curious. I don't know how to test it, but maybe there's a problem with you crank position sensor. Take a look at it and see if the bolt came out, or there's something wrong with the wires. I'm just throwing out wild *** guesses now.

 

Sounds like a cap & rotor to me. Use AC Delco only! Aftermarket stuff doesn't cut it. Put a dab of silicone dielectric grease on each terminal, inside and out, of the cap.

 

well i finally got er goin last night. at the expense of looking stupid ill post what happened. nothing worse than reading a post with all the same symptoms and no answer. so i bought a new cap and rotor, not delco only because i live in a small town and you need to order that kind of stuff. put in new cap n rotor still no start. much more of a sputter but no start. scratched my head for a bit and did another fuel pressure test. pump was working good, but the regulator i put in was leaking. so once more i pulled the plenum and swapped the reg from the original back in. of course i broke the gasket for the injectors on the last pull out, so i gummed that up with some rtv (again, small town) once it dried she fired right up and ran mint. ive got a new gasket and delco cap n rotor on order. all should be well now i thank everyone very much for all the help. hopefully this post helps someone else out. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A NICE BLUE SPARK! orange isnt enough. thanks again.