Perfect timing

In order to diminish the large sooty deposit from coming out the olde tailpipe everytime the gas was tapped, I decided to try to time the vehicles.. well.. timing.
The timing light showed the slot on the crank pulley pointing straight up at high noon at idle. The timing marker starts at roughly 2:00 position. So after loosening the three bolts...oops..catch that? After tightening the three bolts and loosening the timing adjustment bolt I shocked the myself on the loose sparkplug wire. After that the timing was turned to 6 degrees. The engine sounded ok idling, but with the rochester, it stumbled on slight acceleration. At TDC the engine idled weakly and when shut off it dieseled. I ended up moving the timing mark back to roughly 10 degrees (about 1:00 position).
I might have to move it around a bit, but it sounds good. Defenitely not spec, but it will change next time the valves are adjusted and new points put in.