should i run without vacuum advance?

make sure that the vacuum is properly ported , too . it's connected to the Air Horn portion of the carb , at least on BBD Carter 2 Bbl's .

You do have to make sure the vacuum advance is connected to the correct vacuum nipple, yes, but no, it's not on the air horn of a Carter BBD (or any other Mopar carburetor I can think of, which is a fair good variety of them). The vacuum advance port on a BBD is on the starboard side of the main body casting, which is above the throttle body and below the air horn castings.