Disappointing dyno results

A smaller carb is just going to hurt more. Avs has 554 cfm and on a dual plane each cylinder only sees 277 cfm.
I agree. If anything, the stock AVS is too small, not too large. Even for a stock 340.

Back in the day, I ran a 780 Holley and an aluminum intake on an otherwise stock low compression 72 340. It ran very well.