Idle Rpm High in Park, Low in Drive

My guess is that it has a stock mid 70s distributor with a lot of mechanical advance and a similar vacuum can .
So when you set the intial timing via a vacuum gauge you are getting too much timing too quickly . The hotter cam likes more intial timing than the stock one for that distributor but then total timing ends up around 40*+.
This is why Mattax says to use manifold vacuum ... but you need to set intial back around 5-8*. The vacuum advance will bump the idle timing up into the range that the new cam likes and wont over advance it mexhanically .
I bet there is a 15L or 17L advance plate in that distributor....
The right way to do this is to recurve your distributor using a FBO plate and lighter springs. Set the initial around 14-16 and total around 32* . That means you will use the #8 slot on the plate ( it has several different length sets of slots on it ) .
Then you can readjust your carb for idle mixture.. which may be wrong now due to the timing situation .
And take the carb off , flip it over and set the throttle/transfer slot to just about square .

How to limit mechanical advance in a mopar distributor, tuning for street, strip or all out racing, cure that rich stinky idle, win races
Just to be clear, all I was suggesting is that this is one way to get going right now.

I do not agree that the right way is to recurve the distributor by using an FBO plate (or welding).
That may be a useful approach, but if it will depend on the shape of the advance curve. IF the vacuum at idle is strong enough, and the sahpe is right, no further mods may be needed. Or it may be that welding up the inside of the slots is the right approach. That's the one I would suggest is usually the right approach for those that can do it. It's not for everyone and every situation is different.

The first step is to find out what the timing is at idle rpm, or even better rpms (plural)
600 rpm, 750 rpm, are idle rpms mentioned. 1300 + was also mentioned and when possible I always encourage measureing the timing vs rpm as high as the person feels comftable and has the ability to do so.
From that informations, an appropriate approach can be determined.
I just feel that is all down the road.
The big challenges right now are establishing top dead center and base timing.