Slow 1/8 with 74 440 dart

I agree, there should be more vacuum with a (relatively) small cam in a 440. The [email protected] cam in my 451 pulls 8" at idle!

Also, forget you ever heard that "PV needs to be half the idle vacuum". Holley just told people that to give them a starting point but it's rarely correct except for stock cams with big idle vacuum. At idle the PV is not even in the circuit supplying fuel so don't worry about it being below idle vac. You said you drive the car on the street, so you need something closer to half your cruise vacuum, and tune from there. I have 8" Hg. (not "pounds") :p at idle, and 15" at a 3000 rpm cruise. My PV is either 8.5" or 9.5", can't remember right now. It really helps to have a vac gauge and an AFR meter on the dash, too :)

Don't be afraid of idle timing. The bigger the cam, the more it wants. 25 degrees sounds reasonable. But the first thing to do is to check your timing marks, as already discussed. Make sure TDC (and 36 BTDC) is really where you think it is.

Keep working, you'll see big improvements!