Vacuum/ in gear idle issue.

Ok, so the 340 is giving me fits. Timing is about 13 degrees initial and full 36 with the vac canister hooked up. However I think the carb has a vac leak since I was hearing a high pitched whistle (thermoquad) which just developed. So my question is if there isn't a vac leak and would an adjustable canister help for vac advance since the distributor is the original 318 2 bbl distributor?

And my issue is it's seemingly hard to start (buying a new starter) and idle is at 850 rpms but in gear it's dropping about 400 rpms... Ideas?