I put it into gear and it dies.

Total at "WHAT" RPM? Do you even know what total timing is yet? And no, it's a serious question, not a smartass one. "RIGHT NOW" you don't even need to worry about total timing. Throw it out the window for the now. Let's concentrate only on initial for now. You need initial on a stock 318 probably around 12 degrees at the most to START and then work on "everything else". If it won't idle in gear with 12 degrees initial (idle) timing, the problem is NOT in the timing. Also, did you ever get the points right? THe points need to be adjusted FIRST....that means BEFORE you adjust timing or you'll never get timing right.