OK, I don't know what gives here. Here's the distributor from the front of the engine. The firing order as on the cap is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2. #1 is on the bottom of the left side (closest to the front), and it goes clockwise from there. At idle, I have 34* advance, and it goes up from there. I also have a knock at idle but it goes away with higher RPM. Any advice?

 

34 with the vaccum advance hooked up?

 

Get to know your engine.

The cylinders are numbered starting at the front driver's side for #1, #2 is across from it on the passenger side, #3 on the driver's side, etc. So, from the front of the car (closest to the front bumper) on the driver's side are the odd numbered cylinders, 1, 3, 5, & 7, and on the passenger side the even numbered cylinders, 2, 4, 6, & 8.

Where the #1 spark plug wire is on the distributor cap is irrelevant as long as that's where the rotor is pointing when the #1 cylinder is TDC in the firing position. The wires then do need to go clockwise from there in the 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 order.

 

I am familiar with the cylinder numbering. I also am aware that it will still run regardless of where the #1 plug is as long as the firing order is maintained. I was just under the impression that if the distributor is installed with the orientation that it is, that #1 should be on the bottom right of that photo. I merely thought that it might be relevant to the fact that the car won't run unless the inital (base, no vacuum, at idle) is set to 34+ degrees. They are set at 6* stock from what I understand, and many people run them in the 12-18 range. I am not the first person to have my hands on this motor, or I would have a much better idea of what is going on.

 

It sounds like it has the wrong balancer installed on it. Like if you put this balancer on a 3rd gen motor. The timing at idle will be as you describe. Notice where the timing pointer is. This THREAD covers it in detail.