tuning

anybody feel like giving me a start to finish on basic tuning? I did a search and everybody chases similar problems but I thought somebody making a basic guide with a sticky would be helpful for all.

I got my car up and running but now I'm ready to get this dialed in.
I have a stockish 72 360 with fresh rebuild, the thinner head gaskets and stock magnum heads, probably around 9:1.
a stock 68 340 cam (but a bit more actual lift with the magnum rockers)
has a Apple I-Gap manifold (just kidding, but it is made down the street in China) and a new out of the box edelbrock 1406, stock fuel pump.
and keeping the Chinese theme an ebay hei type distributor. Plugs gapped at .045.
Jegs headers and dual 2.5 exhaust with H pipe.
904 with stock 10.45" converter, new clutches and steels and few other parts.
currently stock 2.74 open 7 1/4 rear but I have a 3.25 open 8 1/4 I need a few parts to get in (big thanks to Idaho for that)

I have it running and driving, did the cam break-in last week and drove around the block a few times over the weekend, and went and got gas tonight. It idles good at 750, drops to about 550 in gear, and starts easy. I set timing but now realize I did it with the vac advance hooked up. It was 12 initial and 35 total and then it seemed idle better with 20 initial but I thought that too much, now I realize I need to go back and see how much the vac is adding. Where it was (the 12-35) it had a pretty good stumble off idle if you didn't ease into the throttle. It stumbled bad enough to kill it in the roundabout and was then hard to restart, I thought I ran out of gas and called my wife. Was with my 7 year old so probably won't hear the end of that soon!

kickdown probably needs some tuning but it is working, I'm pretty much babying the throttle and I have that stumble so it's hard to really check where it's shifting and how easy it is to get kickdown yet.

Looks like I might have a little seepage from the t stat housing and some from my oil filter plate but overall seems tight. Water clean, oil clean, staying cool.
Much better than the 318 even the way it is, and I really can't wait for the new rear end now! I'm so very relieved everything is working as everything (disc brake swap, front end rebuild, motor, and tranny all at once) was out and rebuilt by my always learning hands.