Timing problem

Can you explain what you mean by being 0 to 10 * advanced but then it is 'heavily advanced'? How are you setting this 0 to 10* advance?

BTW, make sure that your vacuum advance hose is on the right nipple on the carb. This distributor should run on ported (or timed) vacuum, NOT manifold vacuum. Remove the hose from the vacuum advance and plug it for now to get that variable out of the equation.

When you physically rotated the distributor 45* CCW, you advanced the timing about 90* !! So your starting point was waaaay off. Back up a bit and makes some basic checks.

1) Pull the left valve cover and rotate the engine CW to TDC (0 marks aligned on crank and timing cover) and look for both valves to be moving on cylinder #1; 1E will be closing and 1I will be opening, and both will be open about equal amounts at TDC. If this does not happen when you reached TDC, then rotate the engine 1 more turn CW to TDC again and at that point for sure, 1E and 1I should be slightly open about equal amounts. If this does not occur at TDC, then the damper ring has slipped or the timing chain has jumped and either problem needs fixing. You have done a basic check of cam timing and your damper ring at this point.
2) If 1E and 1I are indeed open equal amounts at TDC, then that is the point at which NUMBER 6 is firing (not #1).
3) Move the crank 30-40* CCW, and then move slowly CW until the crank mark is at the 10BTDC timing cover mark and stop there.
4) Then install the distributor with the rotor pointing at spark tower#6. Then rotate the distributor slightly so that the gap in the reluctor is right at one of the sharp points on the distributor shaft.
5) Use a non steel feeler gauge, adjust the gap between the reluctor and the shaft point to .008". If no non-steel feeler is around, use brass (or 3 thicknesses of light copier/printer paper, which is about .009").

At this point, your timing should be pretty darned close, and you can fire it up and see what happens. Put the timing light on it and you should have to make only small adjustments to the timing to get to 10* advance. If it still runs like crap, then DON'T mess with the timing... look elsewhere. The next steps will be to look at the spark, and then the carb.