First it wouldn't Idle, now it won't run off idle!

[F23]

Alright, so after a donut session in a parking lot, my 1969 Cougar (for all intents and purposes a mustang), featuring its original Ford 351W, would not idle correctly, and continuously stalled in traffic when completely warmed up. I hit about 6000rpm on a full stock internals 351W. It was popping and almost dying all the time. When I finally got home and looked under the hood, i realized that the ignition coil was cracked and leaking, the spark plugs were garbage, the carb was dirty, the fuel filter was made mostly out of dirt, and the distributor wasn't advancing properly. After replacing the gas tank (half of the dirt in the filter and carb was magnetic, aka rusted gas tank), distributor, coil, spark plugs, rebuilding the carb, replacing the fuel filter, checking the compression (~160 all around), and making sure I had proper voltage to the battery and coil, I refilled the gas tank with 93 octane, i re-adjusted the carb, and went for a drive around the block. Now the idle is stable with the very rare pop (~900rpm in park, ~700 in gear), but at cruising speed is surges nonstop, just up down up down up down, and the popping increases. This is my daily driver. I HAVE to drive to work everyday with this car. Any ideas? Please please please help. Just throw ideas at me, cause I am out of them F23

[F23]

40 views and no help?

[David Pozzi]

I'd do a compression check, I'd suspect a broken valve spring. Are the float levels set correctly? No vacuum leaks? Timing set correctly?

[TheJDMan]

I was thinking bent valves.

[MonzaRacer]

Timing,cam timing, firing order. Possibly plugged up ports in carb. Could have jumped time on tc set, remember some 351s use different firing order.
One wire off can cause popping at cruise.
Doubt you bent a valve unless you had it wound up and skipped timing chain.