Welcome to CHR:

It sounds like you have some timing issues. Seeing the timing mark at 7:00 o’clock tells me you are on the wrong plug. As mentioned above, you need to get to basics.

Perform the following on a cold engine. First and foremost, you need to identify top dead center (TDC) for number 1 cylinder. That’s the cylinder closest to the front on the driver’s side of the engine. When you have number 1 at TDC, both the intake and exhaust valves will be closed and the timing mark on the harmonic balancer will be at 0 degrees on the timing tab. Pull the coil wire and have an assistant tap the starter until you see the mark. The distributor rotor should be pointing at the number one plug wire on the cap, typically straight toward the front of the car. Check the cap and make sure that your wires are installed correctly, i.e., 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2, going clockwise around the cap.

I’m very surprised that a 1979 engine still has points and condenser – but with a point type distributor, you need to set the gap at .018 (fine tune using an Allen wrench with the running using a dwell tach to 30 degrees).

Once the dwell is set to 30 degrees, adjust the initial timing (with the vacuum advance removed from the distributor) to 8 degrees before dead center (BDC). Tighten the distributor down and your hot start problems may just disappear.

Good luck,
Glenn