Carb choice for a mutt motor.

A '68 318 with closed chamber early 273 heads shouldn't be low compression unless it's got a felpro 521SD (4.18 bore x usually .0625 minimum compressed thickness) head gasket or similar on it. Run a compression test for us. A well tuned 650 AVS2 is as close to perfect as you'll find for most nearly stock 318's.
Unsure of the details. The engine was put together by the PO's friend. He has long since passed on. Hard to say what happened 20 years ago, or what was even available parts wise back then. I don't really want to disturb this set up because it is a really nice driver. A little underwhelming, but nice.