thank you everyone for all your help. just a couple things i did today.... maybe this will help with the situation at hand. I set the timing. initially it was at 34 at idle, so i checked some online sources and set to 0 tdc with vacuum advance and retard line not capped off. although there is a huge exhaust leak right after the headers the car really smells of gas. this did smooth out the idle in park but the car really bogs down in drive. also what i noticed is that the car doesn't seem to get to operating temp. it was 40 degrees today and i had the heater on in the garage. the engine compartment is pretty dirty so i couldn't see the yellow marking on the actual throttle plate. also checked the fuel distributor a/f ratio and noticed the the screw was missing. now i know that there is an allen screw under it. Maybe there is a vacuum leak and someone before me was trying to compensate for it?