I have the MSD timing retard "dial" on my car. It works great (if you remember to turn it back and forth as needed)
When you turn the advance down,the idle slows down,when you turn the advance back up,the idle speeds back up. It's kind of cool in that respect when your friends are standing around while it's running.
I use to have a note taped to my dash when I was at the track that said "retard timing"
The engine will run better off the juice with it advanced normally. Your Digital 6 will do it with the high speed retard. No you don't have to have a MSD distributor.
On my tunnel ram intake that I was using with the NOS,cylinder #8 was always lean.
I have a couple of videos of my '73 doing some nitrous runs,I have been working on getting them converted and on the internet to post them here.