I put it into gear and it dies.

The stock points distributor has a long slow curve in it. If you set the total timing at 34 you likely will not have enough initial to idle happily on todays crappy fuel. So here’s what I suggest. Get an FBO limiter plate and set up your distributor now. My guess is the engine will like 12-16 degrees of initial timing and 34-35 all in. You can’t get there with a stock distributor. This will allow you to lower the curb idle screw so the transfer slots are happy and your idle mixture screws will start to work again. Temporarily (before you limit the mechanical advance with the FBO plate) you can bring the idle timing in (once you get a light) and tune on it, just be careful driving it like that as you’ll have too much advance and it’ll ping. Quick question, are you using a pcv valve?