why will my 2.1 only run if the timing is advanced 40*???????

What is your question?

1987 Volkswagen Vanagon Westie camper. My boss had it for 5yrs and it has been sitting for the whole time. He had tried tracking down the problem to no avail for a year before the owner decided to give it up and go buy a MBenz sprinter van. I have recently bought it from him and being as I am in California and I need to smog it to register it. We can not set the basic settings properly with the idle set where it will run(40* advanced from TDC). We are a small specialty shop and only work on 80-91 Volkswagen vans. In hopes of keeping it alive,we have spent 2 weeks off and on testing everything short of disassembly of the motor. ~I.E.~all tests in the Bentley manual on spark, timing, ECU, harness, we are baffled.The only way it will run is to feather the throttle, and after starting runs a little rough in the idle. "Please help"....OBI~ONE.... Your our only hope....:p

What makes this problem better or worse?

hard starting,rough idle

How long has your 1990 Volkswagen Vanagon had this problem?

6+yrs