tryin to break in new engine, ruff idle

I only saw sparks and a flame the first couple times I tried starting it. And I may have had the timing off at that time. After that I began messing with the timing, taking it to the point of hard starting/worse performance when too far advanced and the other way until it was running crappy too far retarded. It ran rough the whole way through.

Today when I started it up it ran fairly smooth at first, and I was feelin pretty good, then got steadily worse when it heated up. I shut it off after 10 minutes because it was missing and coughing too often.

I drained the oil and there was not a spec of oil in it so I think the cam is still ok.

My wires: new accel yellow 8mm. I will ohm check them as suggested. My card is holley 600, 8160 model I think.