Pissed off with motor, want to change

WITHOUT KNOWING which hole the no1 wire is in those pictures show nothing. What you need to do is this:

Put the marks on what you believe the timing to be set at

Carefully scribe directly under the no1 plug tower, remove the cap, and put a small file mark to match on the top rim of the distributor. THEN take a picture of the dist. with the timing marks at whatever you believe the timing "is," 10BTC etc

Each reluctor represents 90* of crank rotation. This means, for example, in your first picture with the marks at TDC, AND DEPENDING UPON which tower the no1 wire is plugged into, either the timing is about 15 BTC or way WAY after TDC, probably as much as 50 degrees.

You can tell this by looking at the reluctor tips. Each tip represents 90* of crank rotation. This means if you "eyeball" 1/2 way between, that's 40-45* advance/ retard, depending on what "hole" you are "in."

In this case, we are talking about maybe 1/4-1/3 between.

WE NEED TO KNOW what hole no1 is in for certain.

You might want to use a piston stop to be sure the timing marks are correct, know how to do that?

You should be able to "set up" the engine with no1 ready to fire, the timing marks wherever you want the timing (10-15 BTC, etc) and just set the dist. in with the reluctor pointing to the middle of the pickup. Make sure the rotor points to where no1 is plugged in. With that setup, the engine should fire right up with no fuss at all.

How about mechanical advance, have you revved it up to see what you have for total advance?