Verify if the fuel used there now has 10% ethanol in it, if so you are wasting time and money using any gas drier as your fuel is already carrying 10% of it. Ethanol is commonly used as a gas drier along with methanol or isopropyl, all alcohols of different types. They pull moisture to them and carry it on through. That can be bad if the tank system is not airtight though, then they will always pull any water out of the airspace in the tank and why you fill tank all the way up if letting car sit for a while. The gas cap must seal properly, commonly they don't on pre-emission cars, they were not designed to very well. Nowadays the tank system is tightly sealed from the elements and you can let car sit longer with no ethanol problems. Carbed cars really hate ethanol, I have several that sit and since ethanol showed up my bringing a car back up after sitting problems have multiplied from very little trouble to a real b-tch now sometimes. The residual sugar left in the ethanol has a tendency to make the float needles stick, they stick lightly and usually open since the ethanol has a much greater tendency to evaporate from fuel bowl much more than plain fuel did. The sticking open then floods car right when you go to start it, they commonly can then unstick after a few seconds but by then plug already wet and foul city and no start or runs like crap for a little bit until plug burns clean again. I have pulled more than one carb apart to simply lightly touch the needle to then have it unstick and it then goes to working normally after that, of course by then you have torn up carb gaskets to get that far. A real pain.......... .........it also messes with fuel pump check valves as well and the pump can work or not work with nothing really wrong with it other than it's stuck up a little bit. The rubber checks do not like ethanol at all. You will get far more ultra-fine powdered rust as well the ethanol rusts steel tanks and why all now are plastic. The fine dust goes right through most fuel filters out there especially if you use the very small crap factory Ford filters that screw directly into carb. They are so small they are virtually worthless and can make you think pump is dead when only filter is clogged. I use nothing but real big filters cut into the line further down now, having gone through filter hell several years back, the car just kept clogging them at the rate of like one every two weeks and car kept going down. Going to a really big filter stopped all that, have a look at how big they are on fuel injected cars now, that's for a reason. Ethanol by virtue of its' water carrying ability will always have far more water borne trash in it than straight fuel ever did. Changing fuel filters frequently now if they are small is a fact of life. Ask Ford about why they had to warranty thousands of early Focus fuel pumps when there was nothing wrong with them except for early ethanol that was not filtered nearly as well as they do now, it cost them millions in recall actions. It happened to both of mine, simply pulling module and cleaning the three filters there fixed them to go back on and run fine, not bad for an expected $400 charge apiece for the new module needed. Now the ethanol is filtered better after thousands of complaints and no trouble any more.
Your problem could simply be ignition, have someone go over it all but if you are running duraspark then shouldn't be that unless coil is dying. Maybe check the reluctor gap, it needs to be as close as possible without ever contacting the pickup, closer makes the impulses stronger to the ignition module, that makes them more reliable as a stream. I look for like slightly under .010" if the distributor shaft is still good and tight. The pickup coil can be easily checked for resistance as well. After that it will be the module.
Ethanol laced fuel is always harder to start on cold wet days as a norm, the ignition must be really dead on to pull engine up quickly without fouling plugs. These foul easy anyway, the heads are known for fuel fallout problems because of the really crap port design. Why the later 2.3s went to D-port, to take some volume out of them to speed flow up to stop fallout. 2.0 pretty bad about it too. The port is too big and too low and a hard right angle right at the valve pocket then separates fuel from air to foul plugs. Add to that the ethanol A/F ratio is 9/1 instead of straight gas 14/1 and you can easily be way too lean or too rich since the car does not have a PCM to correct like later ones which retune mixture instantly. Carbed motor in good running shape will be slightly too lean if jetting has never been messed with. The ethanol just by being there can easily wildly tilt the A/F ratio one way or the other to not start easy though and why carbs zoop using it. Go to driving car everyday and the vast majority of the trouble will go away. It's when they sit the problems begin. I'd swear it's a plan to force all pre-emission collector cars off the road but don't listen to me, they'll tell you I'm crazy......... .............. ....
I feel the pain as well, I have an inline 4 CB550F that sits a lot, runs perfectly once sorted out but it tries to stick all 4 carbs to just pour fuel out of it when first cranked after sitting for as little as two weeks. I have developed a procedure to lightly blow air into the fuel line now just to 'pop' the needles loose so I can get around all the issues much faster and easier. I really got tired of repeatedly yanking the carb bank over and over simply to pull bowls to unstick the needles. Tapping on the sides was absolutely worthless.
If you have three lines going to pump you can block the bypass back to the tank to get better fuel pump action, we used to do it at the shop to peoples' cars all the time and never suffered any bad result doing it. Might be well for someone to look at choke setting too.
You can short out inside cap with no detectable moisture at all FYI........... .....look for carbon tracking it will be there if doing it. If you can find a Tempo distributor rubber protector you can put it on a 2.0 distributor to lower the temperature swings it goes through. I always yanked mine off and tossed them as I had no trouble there at all. Watch the ignition wires to make sure they are not running next to each other to bleed voltage from one to another, that can happen just like inside the cap if wires run next to each other, theoretically they should never do more than cross each other, any running next to each other for like 2 inches plus is bad and worse as ignition voltage gets higher. Use wire holders to keep them from laying heavy on metal valve covers too.
I haven't bought a cap or rotor in like thirty years, I simply tune them up by taking off any deposit off posts and rebend the center electrode to press slightly harder against the center carbon cap button which must be there. I wipe the cap inside out with alcohol too. Simple parts, they last forever if taken care of and no need to change if working OK. On my 2.3 Mustang II I had a 2.0 manifold, it comes really close to the #1 intake runner. I cut off two of the top cap posts (already using the short cap) and then took them low out of the side of cap instead, once worked out it ran perfectly after that; necessity is the mother of butchery they say........