Finetuning questions - do I need a high-stall torque converter ?

^^, That's right. I don't slip my clutch out to 4000 at every stoplight! or 3000 or even 2000. No. Generally,I blip the throttle and dump it. So it takes off at what? 1200ish(Ima guessing). with a starter gear of 3.09 x 3.55 = 10.97, and a sharp 360, I am gone. So that seems to indicate that if I was running an auto, then a 2200 TC would be plenty for something lie 90%, or more, of my driving
With a teener automatic and that torque-making cam, a 10.97 starter gear would translate to 3.73/3.55s. But the 2200 stall, could easily compensate for another ratio, so that could be downsized to 3.55/3.23. To my way of thinking, the cost to benefit ratio of swapping out the 3.23s, or the TC, Is just not there yet.
Now as to the carb.
mech1nxh did the math for us, and found a 580 to be nearly optimum. But you have to bear in mind that this is about the maximum requirement. If you redo the math for 2200, you don't need much of a carb to get off the line.And this is where the OP says he's having an issue. Otherwise he says he's generally happy.
If we re-read the thread, we find that OP mislead us. In the beginning he tells us that he's running 3.23s. But much later in post #17, he tells us that he was actually running 2.94s at the time of his having troubles, and has since then swapped in the 3.23s, and appears to not brought us up to speed on how it is performing with those.
Taking all that into consideration, we just need to get off the line a lil more briskly.
So what's that gonna take? Torque. We just need a few more ftlbs. OR, free up a few more Ftlbs.To that end, in post#9, I said install a line-loc. If your teener is not fighting the brakes, it will have more ftlbs left over for tire frying, and the TC will likely flash a lil higher. Then we could use a few more cfms to help make a few ft lbs more off the line. And a DP will cure the possibly resulting bog.
But more than anything, the little teener needs compression.Now he says it's making 10/1. But you know how that goes. We need cylinder pressure numbers. OP,You could have 10/1 and 120psi, and that teener will be lazy. Or you could have 10/1 and 185psi, and be SHARP.
And that takes us back to post #9, which I think, about covers it, except for timings which was covered elsewhere,and looks to be in the ballpark..
Now to the OP, There is a lot of very useful information for you in this thread, offered by a lot of gifted and talented people.I believe you can find success here, so all the best to you.