Performance timing

Timing is like bulding a house. Build a house on a crappy foundation and your results will be subpar.

Timing is the same with initial being the foundation. Get that right and other things in the tune up come around. Even though the tq 20 has a bunch of advertised duration, it's not like the 292 mopar cam. My guess is that you will end up somewhere in the 14-18 range for initial and 34ish for total. Vacuum adavance will add to the cruise total. One big clue that you don't have enough initial, besides the stinky idle, is RPM drop when pulled into gear. Drop should be no more than about 100-150 rpm. Anything more and the engine isn't likely happy or the converter is WAY too tight on an auto car.

Simple test, start engine get it warmed up, Give the distributor a smidge of a twist CCW. If the engine picks up rpm, it wants the timing at idle.