Carb tuning help

What the initial timing set at on this combo. I see tons of "carb" issues that are rooted in poor ignition timing settings. Total timing is the wrong method to use on a street car with mechanical advance in the distributor

Timing almost always affects carb, carb rarely affects timing.

I'm going to guess that combo needs at least 16-18* initial, maybe more.

750dp on a 360/xe268h/2500 verter/2.76 gears, idles fine and getting 20 mpg on the highway with great street manners. That was out of the box, no jet, pv changes. Set the floats, idle and mixture screws and pound on it.