slant six starting problems

here is the latest and last on this. I pulled the distributor and was able to loosen the screw to rotate the plate enough to get the timing around where I need it.
Everything is great with the exception of a dead spot that I am reading up on to try a few things to fix.
I have all of the Ca. emissions stuff on the car and I am going to start removing it to see if it helps. I have retarded and advanced the timing and played witht the air screw. Nothing seemed to help.
But at least it is running and time to move to the next issue.