I advanced the timing on the pump and now I am rolling a lot of black smoke. Is this normal? Do I need to turn the fuel down or retard the timing?

 

hard to say without a timing # to work with.
could be fuel is too high,could be timing too advanced.could be a combo.
it's tough to tune without a meter and pyro.it can be done,but it requires several hard test drives and some wasted fuel.
i would guess your timing was really retarded and the fuel turned up due to lack of performance to try and compensate.if your economy was horrible since adjusting the fuel last time,that would be a sure sign of what happened.

rolling black smoke is never normal.it's not only bad for our kids and grand kids,but it does nothing for performance gain,and it's hard on our wallets,as all it is,is incompletely burnt fuel.it also causes very high egt's too,which is no good for the engine.
some is always normal until the turbo spools up,but puffing a large cloud or rolling,that's expensive diesel fuel getting nothing done for ya.

 

I have not touched the fuel, but advanced the timing without a meter. Egt did not seem to be affected. I recently straight piped the exhaust and EGT's are a little lower. I marked my pump before I advanced it, do you think I should retard it back or turn the fuel down a flat. Side note, I tried to turn the fuel up prior to advancing the pump and could not get it to move. Could it be maxed out and need to be turned down now that I advanced the timing? Thanks for any insight.

 

If you tried to turn it up prior to the advance, its maxxed...turn it back down.

 

That is what I figured, but at the time, it would not smoke at all. I am not trying to roll smoke. Just trying to find that sweet spot. Sounds like I should back the fuel off then. Thanks.