Hi Chevyboy,
There are several avenues you might want to persue. First, take off your distributor cap and check the pointer contact on the rotor. if the distributor chaft bushing gets worn and the rotor touches one of the plug wire contact bottoms, the plastic cleat that keeps the rotor pointer straight will break off and allow it to swivel on the rivit and arc to the contact at the wrong time causing it to fire at the wrong time so it could arc and fire with the intake valve open enough for the spark to go our the intake, burning the gas all the way to the carb. This seems most likely.
Then you need to check the timing advance. Hook a rubber line up to the advance at the distributor and suck on it. If you can't suck a vacuum, then the diaphram is bad and you won't get advance. Also, check your vacuum hoses - one may have come off.
You may have a stuck intake valve. Compression check will find this problem.
Your oil pump could be going bad and without oil pressure, your lifters won't pump up (if you have hydraulic lifters).
I can connect to the squeeling sound of the rotor contact scraping the contacts inside the distributor cap or the vaccuum sucking through a tight place or a gasket vibrating. I can't connect in my mind about a glass pack being on backwards. Most I've seen are straight through with little cupped out places to catch some of the exhaust and backwards would be like catching water in a funnel with the funnel upside down.
A spun bearing would probably have locked-up before you went as far as you did and it probably would have ran well until it quit. If you have a properly functioning guage or light and it didn't tell you anything, your basic engine is probably alright -but who knows, mechanical objects seem to have a mind of their own.
Truck Tinker from Talking Rock, Ga
