re-school me on timing

so its been awhile for me playing with my old 66 olds ragtop. in a nutshell this is whats been done and whats happening. my olds sat for the winter and took in some water...the motor was semi stuck. anyways after soaking in seafoam etc for awhile and me taking the motor apart and cleaning up all the surface rust, she now spins freely. while i was at it i did a valve job. so the heads were off carb was rebuilt, cylinders re-honed...blah blah blah.
got it all back together today after glass beading all the hardware and making it all like new again. put gas in it and no spark. grrrrr.
noticed the white wire to the coil is really hot....like very hot to the touch. also its getting only about 7volts with ignition on. i didnt like the way it was connected so changed the connector. i now have spark...but still 7volts at the coil. if the wire is disconnected it has 12 volts. is this normal? also is it normal for it to be that hot to the touch?
my car gets spark...but still doesnt start. it pops smoke up through the carb. if i recall that means my dist is reversed? i had lined the timing mark and had cylinder at tdc when the heads were off...just dont know if it was compression stroke or not.....that sound about right?
thanks guys its been awhile since i played with my car...nice to be back! xcept...i forgot some of the basics

all 12v coils are resisted down to 6-7 volts, normal, some are done with an external resistor or a wire that has resistance or internal resisted coil. Make sure the points are open when you check that wire. Take out #1 plug turn the engine over till you feel compression building in the hole, then start to look at the timing mark and damper mark, if right they should come to tdc as the piston moves, up if not, take off the the dist cap and note the rotor position, probably 180 off from tdc #1.