Too much timing?

Ok 2 years later and im still working on this. So here's what I've done and where I'm at. The car is tagged now so I'm driving it more and actually getting seat of the pants testing done instead of gauges and numbers. The distributor is a pro form style so the fbo plate didn't help at all instead you adjust the total or lock out using a set screw. So I got the initial set at 14 total 34. All in by 3000. Without the vacuum advance. With the vacuum advance hooked up total is 51. Seems like alot to me but its running good. So one thing I've noticed when I floor it at a dead stop or even rolling it bogs and occasionally it will backfire thru the carb sounds like a lean pop to me. (May be wrong) so I messed the timing again I dropped the total to 44 with the vacuum hooked it dropped the initial to 7. Ran it and it's a dog! Wouldn't even spin the tires. So I bumped it back up to the original set up at the beginning of this thread 24 initial 44 total and unhooked the vacuum and it runs awesome. Can't keep it in the road does nothing but spin! Lol but at WOT I'm still getting the lean pop and bog. So I kept digging pulled the plugs and bt reading the plugs im seeing thats its too rich. Black sooty plugs. So im thinking it's in my air flap on the Thermoquad not opening fast enough. So now for the questions. Do yall think it's a fair assessment that the bog at WOT is the air flap causing a lean condition at WOT? With the plugs showing rich Should I try to lean the carb and adjust the air flap to open sooner? Or leave the mixture as is and adjust the air flap and test it? I dont wanna start chasing my tail here. I know i probably should change one thing at a time. Is 51 total with the vacuum advance way too much? it seems alot to me. I have the distributor curved for total at 34 and to be all in at 3000 rpm but with the vacuum advance hooked up apparently I have 17-18 in the can. Should I limit the total based off the can or let it be? If my total should be a max of 36 I could lock the distributor at 18 and have 36 total just using the can. Im I thinking to much into it? As far as I can tell even with the 51 total im not getting any detonation (unless the what I think is a bog/lean pop is indeed detonation).