School Me On Distributor Performance

Thanks for all the input. Lot to think about. I was thinking that proven combinations were a little more cut and dry. Guess I'll have to tinker.
The governer in there makes that a good distributor to work from.
Correct. The combinations are not as simple as two points or two springs. On the other hand, the combustion and piston position relationship for an engine family will have similar timing needs.
Set up a baseline using the guidelines linked above. Then make a change and retest.
If you're interested in doing it all yourself, I've posted about how to change the start of the advance, how to slow the rate, and other adjustments. I didn't post link to those 'cause figured you had enough to read through now.

Speaking of proven combinations, the gearing and torque converter you are starting with is going to put a high load on that engine at idle and coming off idle. The engine combo you posted is relatively weak at idle and low rpms. Getting the fueling and timing such that it will actually pull the load effectively will be very difficult. The quicker you want to load it (open the throttle) the more load it will see. That's why an engine with a cam like that is usually paired with a looser converter.