Engine will not rev past 1000

OK my stroker has 1,200 miles on it and was running great until yesterday. Now the engine idles extremely rough, and backfires and misses when you give it gas, and it refuses to rev past 1000 rpms. I checked the TPS, MAP, replaced the O2 sensor, I have my adjustble MAP set at 4.1v which is still slightly rich. I checked the plugs and the wires and cap and rotor all were fine. I am all out of ideas now, what else could be the problem? I think the preasure plate in my BA10 broke just before this happened because it makes a grinding noise when I depress the clutch pedal. Any ideas on what the problem could be, would really help. I want to figure this out so I can start on an AW4 swap.

Check the timing at the distributor. If it wasn't bolted down tightly it could have rotated enough to throw the timing off.
Another possibility is that the timing chain could have skipped a tooth or two and thrown off the valve event timing.

Your CPS might be out of adjustment or loose. There should be about the thickness of a sheet of paper between it and the pickup ring. If it is too high it won't work at higher speeds. Does it idle smooth? When it hits the highest rpms, does it simply not go higher or does it start missing, or does it sputter. Have someone do the throttle and go back and check the tail pipe. See if it is running too rich at high rpms or too lean.
Post the info back here and we will work with you. Too bad your so far away. By the way I just did an AX-5 to AW-4 swap. It was a pain but hopefully it will keep the broken axles to a minimum on the trail.

If the PPlate broke you may have damaged the CPS in the bellhousing. that will definitly cause a skip/miss.

Thanks for the ideas, it never even occured to me that the cps could have been damaged. I hope not though since I just put the high altitude cps in last week. It doesn't idle smooth at all and it will barely rev up to 1k. I will check the cps, and timing tomarrow. Can the distributor move enough to throw the timing that much?

The distributor does not alter the timing - the CPS and the computer control the timing. Also if you have not indexed the distributor - do it NOW. A distributor not properly indexed is the most common cause of skipping in stroker and stock 4.0 rebuilds.

Check your cat. If it's plugged up you will have too much backpressure and she will get progressively worse until it dont run no 'mo.

Start it up & let it run for awhile to get nice & warm, carefully check the exhaust pipe temp ahead of the cat & then behind the cat, if there's a big difference then it's plugged. Temp. fix would be to cut a slot at the front of the cat pipe to give the exhaust somewhere to go. This'll get you to the muffler shop.

-jb

OK the distibutor is bolted really tight so I'm pretty sure it didn't rotate, plus I thought it could move enough to throw anything off. I installed the distributor the way the FSM instructed and it ran fine for 1200 miles, but I'll look into it. I tested the CPS with an ohm meter and it read 191.8, so its within specs. When the engine is idling rough the timing is at the 6th grove on the timing chain cover and a vacume gauge reads 10 when it idles smooth its at the 9th and the vacume is 15, when I give it gas it drops to the 5th and the vacume is around 10. Also when I push the clutch pedal the idle gets even more screwed up. Could a damaged flywheel cause this problem or maybe something cought in one of the spaces the cps reads?