One other part of my problem was keeping the correct amount of total timing at the higher rpm. When sorting out the timing requirements, I found that when I had enough total timing for the engine to pull hard in the upper rpm, I had to turn the distributor back to restart the engine because it had too much initial. Most people have the opposite problem.
Once I "mapped" the timing that the engine wanted in steps of 500 rpm, I was able to tailor the right advance curve, and the engine started and idled nicely (considering the cam) and pulled hard all the way from about 2500 to 5500 rpm.
