Working on a 1981 F100 with a 302, got a handful of questions.

I am currently working on a friend's 1981 F-100 with a 302. Initially she brought it to me because it was idling crazy rough and would stall when braking.

I identified a number of vacuum leaks, bad choke pull off, rotted out choke heater tube, and no power going to the electric choke.

After addressing those issues it appeared to not be getting fuel. There is an electric Edelbrock fuel pump mounted on the driver side wheel housing. It was on but not able to get fuel from the tank. Apparently there was really bad vapor lock in the line. After sorting that out the pump was good to go.

After turning to the key to the on position without starting the truck, gas began to overflow out of the main vents on the carb, 2150 Motorcraft. I cut it off, removed the air horn. Cleaned everything out with carb cleaner. That seemed to fix this issue. I am assuming that some varnish or other crud was preventing the needle from seating properly.

I started it up, and it was running far smoother than it was when I got it. I adjusted the timing with a timing light after letting it warm up, with the vacuum line to the distributor disconnected and plugged. It has a duraspark II set up.

It ran decent for a little while then began to hesitate a bit. After poking around I found that another leak going to the PCV valve and the PCV valve itself appears to be on it's way out. I tested the valve by attaching a balloon to it and blowing into it to fill it up. The deflation rate of the balloon varies because if shake the valve the plunger on the inside may or may not seal depending on how it landed.

I'm about to replace that valve and the line and try things out again. While it was running decent my vacuum gauge was reading around 15 which seemed a little low to me.

More minor issue, brakes are squealing but the pads have plenty of life left on them. I haven't checked the drum brakes yet.

Alright I think that is all of the info, here are the questions:

1. Is that electric pump set up dangerous? My thought is that if the carb for any reason wasn't stopping the flow and she had the key on, it would overflow and be a major fire hazard. For this reason I'm planning to put a mechanical pump on it to ensure that the engine is at least sucking fuel were the needle to not be stopping the flow. Am I off in my thinking here, or is there something I am missing?

2. What should I be reading for vacuum when idling? Besides vacuum leaks, bad compression, and bad timing is there something I should check out on it?

3. If the drum brakes turn out to be fine and the pads are fine, any idea what could be causing that squealing?

4. Almost forgot this one, the smog pump and cats have been removed, it has the DSII but the EGR valve is still on there. The vacuum line on the valve was capped when she brought it to me. Does that valve need to be removed and capped off or is that another potential problem?

Thanks for the help you guys! I know I got a lot of different things going on here but I figured more info is better.

An electric fuel pump really should have a safety so it can only run when the engine is turning. So a mechanical pump is a good idea.

A stock 302 should pull 18 - 20” of vacuum at idle. I would bump the timing up to maybe 12 BTDC and see if that helps.

On the squeal I would check for a rock or something in a front pad.

As for the EGR, it should be ok without removing and blocking. But you can check to see if it is working by applying and then removing vacuum. There should be a change as the engine should slow down and maybe struggle to idle with vacuum on the valve. And that should go away when you take the vacuum off.