Slant 6- Idle and Running

UPDATE, my journey continues...

If you read this and something stands out, please yell at me to check something. This car is kicking my *** ha but its fun. I get short windows to work based on looking after a 3 year old. I only get a few minutes to diagnose things when running since it wont run when warm yet.

The commiefornia emissions, doesn't make much of a difference connected or not, so its not connected. I also have the pump not seen in most photos of A-body slant 6's I've seen. I'm guessing these are all unrelated to my problems.

Valves. Valve lash were off but it doesn't seem to change any of my problems. Set to 0.011 and 21 based on my moderately warmed engine.

Timing. I can't set the timing as I don't have timing marks, so I can't report what my timing is set to. I know its meant to be a welded on bracket, but mine doesnt have it. I can say retarding or advancing the timing by ear does nothing for my problem, it wont run or start warm. I have spark on all cylinders. Haven't compression tested yet. When I look at my timing under the light, my timing notch wanders. It is not stationary. (???) I have capped the vacuum advance and checked for vacuum leaks. Why would my timing be wandering? Maybe this is the source of my problems afterall. Not sure what to check here other than to replace ignition components. Obviously I can't check the timing warm, btw the engine is idling pretty calm during this warm up phase. Coil has been replaced for giggles.

Fuel leak. Now I have a fuel leak from my fuel pump, not from the fittings but from where it enters the block. So that'll need to be replaced. I didn't have a leak here before but perhaps this could have been contributing.

Hot vacuum leak. So far all I've done to test this is do the carb cleaner vacuum test, at various temps, but surely the vehicle would start back up when warm? it will crank when warm but not start or even fire. If I choke the engine, then it will.

Carb rebuild incoming, hoping this is the holy grail.