Heating cat? or need timing adjust?

I just bought an 87 toyota p/u, 22r, bored .30 (I didn't do it, but thats what I'm guessing), manual and all that jazz.

Anyway, I just took it in for emissions and it failed. I failed on CO output. They weren't that much over. The emissions of CO at cruise is 1.2% CO and I got a 1.38% CO. At idle the limit is 220ppm and I had 272.

SOOO.. I have had a couple suggests from a dude. He said run it hard to heat up that cat and therefore it will decrease the CO, which makes sense, but I'm not sure if that will lower it to what I need. He also suggested that I check the spark plugs which I'll do tomorrow. He also said that if I adjust the timing it will definitely fix it. I have no idea how to adjust timing and I'd rather do it myself than take it into the shop. So.. if someone could either offer some tips or explain to me how to adjust my timing that'd be GREATLY appreciated..

Thanks, Phil.

actually for anyone else interested in this topic as well.. I looked through previous posts and found the BEST forum topics to PASS EMISSIONS LEGALLY AND INEXPENSIVELY. Check it out. http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=0465a68bcf6a5c6312542ad1af4f5e 14&topic=1119.40