David,
The sooner you get a good car, the sooner you can ditch the train …. but don’t try to type and drive.
I would normally expect compression figures of at least 100 – but was the engine warm/hot? If not, figures are likely to be lower.
Sooty plugs … not likely to be a function of advance/retard but more probably mixtureof not just the result of using the choke to start but not following up with a decent run.
B….
Bernie