I’d dispute some of those variables like #7. It’s a new stock 340 with Eddy intake and carb. I’ve changed some of variables with little change to intake vacuum unless I crank initial timing up well above 18 degrees. All I want to know is the normal range. One member had heard that it was low with this cam and maybe not suitable for power brakes (which i don’t have).
I ran power brakes with a 292/292/108 cam in, straight-up. also at +4, and +8. I had no problems with my booster, other than backing out of my carport, in the morning.
Since then, I have been thru two other cams, a 270/276/110, and the current one is a 276/286/110.
None of these have a shortage of vacuum; not at idle and not at cruise.
Boosters have a large storage chamber, that when it is evacuated, it will give you at least one panic stop from 65 mph, even if you turn the engine off.
So to evacuate the booster, mine, cold, only takes a couple of blips of the throttle, which I do anyway while backing out f my carport to keep it running, cuz she has no choke and my Idle timing is just 12 to 14....... cuz you know, I like to drive slow. which is really hard to do with 20 degrees. Sometimes I crank it back to just 5 degrees to drive just 4mph. Imagine my engine vacuum. Don't ask me what is, cuz I don't care, that's why the booster has a checkvalve built into it.
Of course on the hiway, in overdrive, at 65=2240, with 51 or so degrees advance, there is plenty of vacuum, and since mine is a manual trans, downshifting keeps the vacuum up, all the way to a stop.
Surely your 340 cam will make more vacuum than mine.
Surely somebody fed you a line.
Surely you will never run a 292 cam, lol.
But, IMO, surely; don't try to run that little Duster dual-diaphragm, it requires too much vacuum to start charging it.
I run some big "monster" off a 73 Dart that starts charging at something like 8 inches. Plus, I have retimed mine now, for less boost, cuz passengers don't like their noses plastered into the dashpad.
Oh and with a 4-speed, behind my 11.1/1 engine, when I lift off the gas, it's like a regular automatic applying the brakes pretty hard, as it is. Engine-braking is a wonderful thing.
Oh and, I don't run any proportioning on my rear brakes, cuz there's 295s back there. So then, when I do brake, it's like instantly towing a rock-laden sled.
My booster/and brakes have been recalibrated to work the way I want them too. She wears out the rear shoes pretty often, whereas the front pads now have over 135,000 miles on them.
Engine-braking together with full-pressure rear brakes are awesome. Ask me if I care about how much vacuum my engine makes at idle or while cruizing; I just don't ever think about it, cuz it's just never been an issue. Well, not quite true; that dual diaphragm was no friend of the 292 cam. At the first, I bought a hill holder, so I could put the trans in neutral at a long light, so that the booster remained charged.
But, in the end I found this nice old booster in my junkpile, and surprise, it still worked.