So very stuck...

Okay, what I'm saying by " all day" is I would retard the timing a few degrees then test drive, come back retard a few degrees and then test again. No i cant say that i understand timing at this point. When i retard the the distributor its turning clockwise, another indicator that something is wrong as everything I'm reading says it should be CCW. At this point I'm just glad there is no damage to the motor. Everything seems to be intact and together. Now i just need to find a starting point. I'm thinking the balancer. The distributor is a summit racing HEI capped with vacuum advance. Part number 850033 if I remember correctly. And the coil is a MSD.