[Barry_R]

With a Weber intake you should be able to stick a flashlight into the ports and see where it was leaking - pretty clear trail to view. Have not seen an intake yet that we could not fix - but some of them have been pretty challenging.

The backfiring is a tuning issue - probably too rich and loading the pipes when the throttle got closed.

Timing - 22 initial should be easy to light and crank - hot or cold. Now, when you go to locked out at 36 it can be another story

The 2x4 should be pretty strong upstairs compared to Webers, but the Webers can be really tough with big torque through the midrange - probably why it felt so strong in normal driving. In this case the track clocks might disagree with your "butt-o-meter", but most of us spend much more time tuning with the latter.