distributer cap mods?

Sorry, not trying to get ahead of myself here. I'm just almost certain this is a manifold vaccum leak, in fact i'd almost garantee it is. And altho it is very possible my torque wrench could be off, i do not think it is, because i purchased brand new in august and have only used it to torque my wheels once and my intake once. And it's a craftsman with a life time warranty.
I get off work around 2 or 3 tommarrow afternoon mountain time, then i hae to start a fire in my garage because it has been 5 below zero all day everyday for the past 3 or 4 days, then i will let the engine fully warm up idling and i will plug the carburetor accum ports, drop the initial timing to 12 degrees and see how it idles, then i will spray wd-40 all around the intake nd the carburetor base gasket, and i will report back.