Unknown rebuild specs

Holmdel is very near sealevel. With 3.55s, it should rocket off the line.
IMO, put the previous distributor back in, set the timing back to what it was and increase the idle rpm 150 from where it used to be, which should cure your not-enough-Transfer-Slot-exposure-to-prevent-the-dreaded, Tip-in sag.
Now you have a base-line working ignition system.
You know it works so map it out.
Defeat the VA, then record the Timing Advance every 400 rpm from idle to whenever it stops advancing. Go find or make a graph paper. Graph your results; rpm along the bottom, advance up the left side. Connect the dots.
>>If the line is a curve you have a two-spring curve which is very good.
Find the highest advance number; you want that to be no more than 36*. This is called your Power-Timing.
Find the rpm at which that number occurs. You want that to be as low as possible but not causing detonation. This is part two of PowerTiming.
Find, as best as you can, where the two curves cross. You want that to be near stall rpm. This will be called your Stall-Timing, after you synchronize them.
The engine does not much care about any timing under stall, so long as it is low enough at idle, to not cause the tip-in sag.

Ok job one is to get your PowerTiming worked out. If it is NOT 36*, make it so. If the engine detonates at above 3800, then decrease the PowerTiming to 34*. and try again. If it still detonates, use a higher octane gas and start over. If it still detonates, with highest octane gas, with 34*and 3800rpm, and the engine has the correct heatrange plugs, and the right jetting; sorry man, your combo is sick. Something will have to be changed. Let's assume this is not the case.
For arguments sake, lets say the PowerTiming is ok/no detonation at 35*@3400rpm. From now on, that will be your target. Reset your distributor to 35 at above 3400, and remap your curve. If there is no detonation below 3400, then Leave it there for several days, and get to know the curve. Idle it down until you get a Tip-in sag, then add 50 rpm If this is greater than 650 in gear, or the trans engages harshly, make a note of it. Keep driving for like a week. Make sure you have no detonation anywhere.
Next we are gonna home-in on your Stall timing.
Correlate your stall rpm onto the timing curve to see where it's at. I'm assuming here that this past week, you had no detonation. Are you happy with the power hit at stall? If yes, then that part is done.
But let's say you think the stall is a lil soft. Then; Increase your Powertiming by 3*. After this, do not run WOT if you experience detonation. Now go try some more hits. Just hits. If it gets better, GREAT, try 3 more! Keep adding 3 degrees at a time until you get detonation, or the power seems to fall away.
Lets say your convertor stalls at 2200, and it liked 26* for best hit.
Put your power timing back to where we started, 34*. Look on your graph and see what the current stall rpm is. Lets say it is 22*. You are gonna want that to be 26*, sooner or later.
Next, we are coming to Idle-timing.
Say it is 10 degrees. Say you have no Idle Tip-In sag, it idles nicely there, and the trans does NOT bang from N>in gear.
Why would you want to change it? You don't need to, so leave it there.
But say to eliminate the tip in sag, the rpm climbs up to 800, and the trans really jumps the car when you engage a gear. This is unacceptable. The only easy cure I know of is to retard the timing. So try less.
Find a combination of;
Transfer Slot exposure and
Mixture screw adjustment, and
Idle-Timing ,
that eliminates the Sag, and Minimizes the clang, Yet when you put the trans in gear, the rpm drop is 100 rpm or less and drive-away is a dream.
and don't care for a second what the timing gets to be, unless it goes retarded, lol, but I've never seen that happen. Your engine will tell you what it wants, don't try to force more timing than it wants. Don't even put a timing lite on it , until you got it worked out.
Ok so now, having worked it out, you find the Idle-timing to be 10*.
Finally, you might want to know about the Cruize-Timing.
Cruise-Timing
This is easy. with 3.55s and 26.5 tall tires, 65=mathes to 2927 rpm at zero-slip, so could be up to 150 rpm either way, depending on many factors.
So here's what you do; With the Vcan now engaged, and the distributor loose enough to tug on, and the engine warmed up; Rev the engine up to cruise rpm, ant try to keep it there. Then crank in a lil advance say 3*. If the rpm goes up, bring it back, and add 3 more, bringing the rpm back. Repeat until adding more timing does not produce more rpm. That's your ideal Cruse timing. NOW put the Timing lite on it and rev it back up to Cruize-rpm and read it. Whatever it is, subtract 3* for lack of load, and that is your target. Write it down. Sat it's 44*. I mean it could be a lil more or a lil less, this is just an exercise. Put the Power-Timing back to 34.

Synchronization.
Now we have the FOUR targets, namely;
PowerTiming of 34*,
Stall-timing of 26*, and
Idle timing of 10*, and Cruise-timing of 44*.
Those are the maximums that your combo will accept. But when you look at your curve, it looks nothing like that, so what do you do?
Well, IMO, you pull it out and ship it to a guy who can connect the dots for you, and for a modest fee, you're back in action, and forever happy.
Or, you ship him your spare and get that one modified. Your man doesn't care which one he gets. You tell him what you want, and he makes it happen. This will save you weeks to months of chasing the curve by yourself. Well worth whatever it costs.
So, when you get it back, you stab it in, set the Power-Timing to 34* and Drive.
RESIST the urge to experiment, just drive it.

If yur not happy with the hit at stall, get a new convertor, and adjust the stall-timing again to see if the D has to be recurved... or not.
If yur still not happy, maybe your cylinder pressure is down.
If yur not happy with the acceleration as a whole, below 65 mph, change the rear gear, or get a different trans, with lower or more gears.
If the engine is a slouch above 65 mph, yur gonna need, either
1) more cylinder pressure, or
2) a bigger engine, or
3) supercharger, or
4) a lighter car, or
5) aero.

Lunch-time!