Rebuilt my quadrajet, still runs like dookie. Possible ignition issue?

[jrblanke]

I have recently rebuilt my quadrajet on my goodwrench 350. I put it on last night, hooked everything up and I believe I set my float level too high. When I rebuild it, I seated the idle mixture screws, then turned them out 2.5 turns (Doug Rue's book). When I started the truck, it was blowing out black smoke at idle, and also when I revved the truck. It was also very sluggish when I tried to rev it. When I screwed the idle mixture screws in a full turn, it leaned it out slightly but black smoke was still visible during revs. It also did not like to rev, like it was a lot of work for it to rev up.

I drove the truck down the street and it didnt seem to have much power (less than normal).

After fixing the float level, I am going to verify that the new fuel filter is still clean. Then I am going to manually turn over the engine until cylinder 1 is at top dead center, and then I plan to verify the balancer has not slipped and the distributor is not off a tooth.

I set the timing at 4 degrees BTDC last night, but it still ran like garbage.

Can a bad float level (too high) cause the truck to not have any power?

I am kind of frustrated, and don't really know which direction to go, if you could not already tell.