Timing problem

That is BAAAAD gas! Holy crap.

The gel is likely the ethanol in the old fuel; it separates out, absorbs water, and turns into a gel. It is quite possible that it sucked up some gel into the carb and has gummed up the carb's insides. And if the carb set with this garbage fuel in it, it is likely to be gummed. I'd pull it apart and clean it all out considering the awful looking pix you posted of the gas and the report of gel.

I also wonder if intake valves have been crapped up and are sticking now.... we'll leave that alone for now.

When you go to set the timing to 8* or 0* manually, do this: 1). Set the points gap to .017" with the distributor out. it will be easy to set out of the car.
2) Put the crank timing mark on 0* or 8*, it should idle smoothly at eitherbut 8* would be better.
3) Insert dirstributor and turn the distributor slowly CCW and watch the points very closely; when you see them start to open, STOP right there and lock it down. You will be close on timing.
4) Line up your rotor and cap and plug wires BUT understand that at this point, the engine can be ready to fire on either #1 OR #6 cylinder. So one of those 2 should be lined up on the rotor.
5) If you want to know if it is #1 or #6 ready to fire, remove the valve cover and look at the valves on #1 or #6; both intake and exhaust valves will be slightly open on one of these 2 cylinders; whichever it is, the other cylinder is the one ready to fire.
6) If you don't do 5) above, then try running then engine with #1 wire at the rotor set at the rotor in step 4. If it backfires, then try moving them all 180 degrees on the cap and fire it up again.

BTW, to check your spark being good enough do this:
Pull the coil's spark wire off of the cap and put the open end of it 1/4" from metal, then crank and look at the sparks. They ought to jump that gap with a hot looking blue spark if the ignition system is good. If not, stop, let us know, and then we can work on the ignition some more. YOu can try this test before you set the timing as above.