1966 Plymouth Valiant /6 & Holley 1945 carb can only get to idle at 1250rpm. How to get a lower idle without dying?

try and fix one problem at a time. i know it's difficult with the thing hemorrhaging black gold everywhere.

doing a pan gasket in-situ sucks a hairy one. buy or rent a tie rod separator so you don't destroy them. get a good gasket set and some "right stuff" and you should be good to go. make sure it's the pan gasket and not the rear main leaking. that's right bastard to do laying on your back.

you don't *need* a cherry picker to get the motor up, you can use a floor jack and pieces of 2X4 to block the motor in position.

anyway, back to the (likely) carb issue. the idle fluctuating is more likely a sign of it running lean due to a vacuum leak than rich. if it's also running rich, it's likely due to the fuel pouring from the boosters because the float level is set incorrectly (or too much fuel pressure).

keep at it, i know it can be frustrating but you'll get there.