[Wild Bill]

sounds like you may have multiple issues of which only the timing chain has been resolved.

Look for one or more of these to be causing you problems some of which have already been mentioned:

-Needs valve job
-Flat cam/bent pushrod/broken rocker or stud
-Vacuum leak from carb, cracked intake, bad gasket, cracked hose, bad power brake booster, bad pcv valve
-Worn out/stuck mechanical advance
-Worn rings/cylinders
-Marginal fuel pump
-Water in gas
-Carb tune
-Coil, plugs, wires
-all of the above plus what ever I couldn't think of

We can't see it or fix it from here. You have to dig in and check or eliminate all possibilities like you have started to do. Borrow known good parts.

One way to remember which way to turn the dist to advance is to think of the vac adv canister as an arrow head pointing the direction to advance.

Bill