Stupid Distributor Questions

George,
Popping thru the carb sounds like the float drop is way too low. Can you take a pic of the carb to show us the vacuum port? How are the idle mixture screws set?

In regards to an electronic unit, the plugs stay the same at .035, the curve I believe is about 27-30*(i.e. 8 initial=35-38 total). You could go that route but I would personally fix the carb issue first. The elec. ign will not cure that issue.