Thank you for the responses; sorry for the delay, the wife went into early labor last night
Yes the distributor is from Skip White(evilbay) and I will be checking the cap for cracks and I will check the rotor - I DO have the old distributor still lurking around the garage so I may indeed swap. I'm going to be pissed if the new dist is crap; it has only been installed for a month or so and has been great so far. I will also recheck connections to the hei. *the junction box power is in good standing.
I also am questioning the timing. I will likely re-time it just to get it done and over with, and see if that's the burden.
The plugs are gapped properly(i'm far too detail oriented nearly all the time. I will recheck the plug wiring; i did not change out any wires while i installed the new plugs.