Engine running rough

Thank you for the response. Okay, so I did the timing and that looks correct. I have corrected any vacuum leaks I'm getting around 15 to 20 at idle. The shake doesn't seem to change whether at idle or accelerating up to 1,500 to 2,000 RPMs. I put my hand over the carburetor to lean it out and that doesn't seem to help either. I started pulling wires off a plug and some seem to affect the engine running more than others. But they all seem to affect it. This is kind of a tough one. I saw another guy on here asking basically the same question and describing the same issues. But I didn't see a resolution. So, what else do you suspect?

You're on the right track, should have told you that hand over carburetor does cause it to run richer, but doesn't seem to correct the rough running, also this mis continues when accelerating. The plugs are new, wires new, carburetor rebuilt (but suspecting I may need to go through it again). Spark plugs look fairly new, if anything a bit of white corrosion like it's too lean. I do not know much about them, could almost just consider them normal looking. The exhaust is clean. Distributor cap is clean, it's new - upgraded to a flame thrower cap and coil.

So, where I am at is; I rebuilt the top of the engine - new pan and head gaskets. So, all of the above parts are new. So, what I am doing next is re-torquing the exhaust manifold bolt (forgot to do that). Maybe pull and go through carburetor.

Timing chain? I aligned TDC a couple times when installing the distributor. When I watch the timing notch with timing light, it waivers about 1 degree, but generally stays right on 8 degrees - I know its manual says six, but it definitely runs best at 8. This is a stumper.

Okay. So, I pulled some plugs from the rear cylinder, and they looked a bit white like they were running way too lean. And it doesn't really smooth out when I hold my hand over the carburetor. So, what I did yesterday was pull the carburetor and I noticed the fuel filter has that valve on it and apparently it had dried/shrank due to gas over time and was pretty much blocking the gas. So, what I did is temporarily modify it so it would let gas through, and I went to the carburetor, put it back on just seem to be running better. Readjusted my vacuum timing and idler screws. However, I still suspect that maybe my little modification didn't do the trick, so I ordered a new fuel filter with a new valve on it. Going to try that next. I will update you on that one. It definitely doesn't sound like it's missing as much when I listen to the exhaust. So, maybe we're dealing with the stupid thing as a fuel filter that looks new but had to dry it out gasket blocking fuel. I'll let you know.