318 Idle issues

If you can cover the primary bores and/or close the choke with no/little effect then it’s running on air from somewhere. Either the secondaries are open or it has a vacuum leak. Period. Pull carb off, turn it upside down and close the secondaries down tight, but not sticking. Then re tune the primaries.
Out of all the advice I see on here, It has to be getting air from somewhere I would address this issue first.