318 timing............

Mopar recommends 34 degrees total with an iron head. That's what I run my car at, I just set it for that and did not worry about the initial timing but I mainly race the car and have a very quick timing curve in my distributor (I'm using the MP tach drive distributor) but the total will be the same regardless if it's for race or street.
So with the 34 degrees in mind if you had 24 degrees of curve in your distributor you would have 10 degrees of initial timing. This is all done with the vacuum advance unplugged. If you had a 32 degrees of curve in your distibutor that would leave only 2 degrees initial and might possibly be a little sluggish off idle. I would try a starting with 8 degrees of initial with 26 degrees of curve to give you the 34 degrees of total. Also you should have your total advance in at about 2400-2500 rpm for the street.