1987 318 Tuning with Summit Carb

Does the OP know someone with a known good carb they could try, already running on something. Don't jack with it, just install it, fire it off and see if it acts the same way.

I thought that was a 4150-4160 carb. Doh! It's one of those motorcraft copy carbs, friend had one many years ago when summit first started selling them, a trash can would have been a better carb.

Run the float level down half a turn, see if that helps. That cam is so small, you shouldn't have to dick with anything on the carb to get it running. 12-14 initial and it should idle smoothly around 700-800 easily.

Something, somewhere is royally F'd up.

Trigger wires from distributor reversed?

I tried... good luck.
I agree totally and 100% about the early ones. I remember well. But it seems like most everything they got the bugs worked out. I know a few people locally who have them and they work well. Also, the Autolite 4100 they were designed off of are literal legends in the Ford world. They were among the best carburetors Ford ever offered. They powered some of the more hot FE engines. .......man that's gettin to be a LONG time ago now, ain't it? lol