but that 60degs sounds a might suspicious!
I think that, and the hunting back and forth of the timing, was due to the ill fitting distributor rotor. Of course, I can't tell for sure because I haven't been able to get the thing up and running since then. I'll try the 5-10° again, although, I'm quite sure I've been there when I twisted the distributor around to hunt for an encouraging sequence of starting chugs.

(Refer to my Ignition tech page.)
You mean, read my bible again? ;-)

Also, once you are firing at the correct time, look down the throat of each carb at the venturi with a flashlight...do you see dropplets of fuel being atomized during starting when choked?...if not, try squirting a half a shotglass of fuel into one carb...if it starts then, you're probably still lean.
I'll get a helper to do that. (Not enough hands.) Plugs get quite wet, though, and while twisting the distributor around, I've caused the occasional cough-back of atomized, unburned mixture..

it's still a four cylinder engine...why not run it as such!.
The cylinder walls on the middle two are so badly scratched up as to be beyond use for normal operation. To bring them into action I'd have to rebuild the whole motor. I can get a fresh B16 for what that would cost and I can pick up a Diesel Rabbit with a good engine for $600.

Using a single carb was my original plan, but I wasn't able to find a single carb manifold. That's why I tried to adapt a VW carb to a Weber downdraft manifold, but after I had it all together, I couldn't get it to work, so I dragged out the SU's with their manifold. I have a good centrifugal governor that I had set up for the VW carb. I won't try to addapt it to the SUs till I know I can get the thing to start reliably.

but you got to get it starting FIRST
You said it!!! Thanks for the input.
Bob S.