Jeff -

You're on the right track on the ignition timing issue.

Look under the distributor cap and you'll see tunnels for #1 and #4 that alter the firing point in the distributor rotation. While #1 tower points to the passenger tire area, the firing point is actually toward the rear of the engine. With the crankshaft at TDC on the compression stroke, the rotor should point at an imaginary point on the firewall directly behind the engine. If you look at the distributor you'll see a dimple on the collar that you can align with a vertical mark on the housing - hold this alignment and set the distributor with the tang adjustment hole centered over the bolt hole. Release the alignment as the distributor drops into the cam gear and the rotor should end up pointing toward the rear of the engine.

Good luck,
Frank