Advantage of being advanced- better power.
Advantage of being retarded- better mpg.
Db2 timing adjustment- you can’t get it accurate enough to improve either of the above by ear- you need one of the specialty tools. If you go a hair too far in either direction you loose the small gain you could have from it.
The timing chain stretches enough that timing adjustments to stay in the sweet spot is every 20,000 miles. But to stay from getting way out, and more realistic for people is every 30,000 miles. It will run if it goes 300,000 miles without a single timing adjustment.
I can’t read the retarding info above on my phone. But step one is set the timing. NEVER MESS WITH THE RETARDER WITHOUT SETTING BASE TIMING FIRST.
Otherwise you end up tail wagging the dog.
step one of chasing white smoke- you need to smell it. If it smells of diesel fuel- then yes look at injection pump & injectors.
Sounds like you don’t have the timing tools or else you would have already done it. The $300 on a good deal and $500 on normal prices for the basics will not be easily offset.
The stretched timing chain will beat up mpg gains around the 150,000 miles mark.
As I mentioned before- driving the hiway, slower speeds and cruise control will be your biggest money savers.
Be careful of “TINKER-ITIS”. Wanting to make things better so messing with stuff, often leads to breaking something that was working on older rigs.
Almost never doe the retarding controls need adjustment.