Okay, so I'm officially confused at this point. I'm asking for some help regarding tuning/engine theory, etc. First off, generally speaking about fuel/spark/afr's, if you retard the timing your afr's should go up therefore you can pull fuel, but should have a loss in power accordingly, right? More timing, more fuel, more power, but increased chance of knock. Providing i'm not missing something here, this is my problem:

Runnin MS2 with low-comp JE's, stock cams, with about 160psi cylinder compression. Tuning idle, I found that the stock ECU's timing values of ~5*-15* or so are probably more for emmissions, (retarding to keep EGT's high), as mine is happiest at like 30*. My ve's are mid 40's at this point. If i do change timing down to say 10*, it goes way lean and I need to bump up fuel to mid 50's. Same for low RPM cruising. If I pull 10* it goes lean, and I have to add fuel. I actually have been getting better power/economy by advancing the timing and REMOVING fuel. I haven't been able to get true dyno time in, and am a bit scared as far as theoretically determining values as the relationships are not like they should be. Retard timing, less burn time, richer afr's.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

In theory yes in real world no.

Advancing timing and retarding timing will not always affect your AFR's. Its true, your obviously seeing it as proof.

At idle my timing is about 17* and at cruising i am as high as 40* is some spots. Any timing over 35-36 really isnt makign any difference. The neon guys have tested to 54* and never noticed any difference in cruising ect.

Power tuning the timing map is something entirely different.

Yeah, I have cruising about 40couple* also. anything more didn't seem to do a whole lot, and made it buck on tip-in from off throttle. The main areas I'm dealing with are low rpm, part-throttle. I'm sure my accel enrichments aren't exact, but they are pretty close. Those don't matter in this case anyhow, as I'm doin fairly static loads (BIG hills lol) where I can keep it constant for half a minute or so. It's just frustrating!