Thermoquad float questions

[Dino]

Lookie what I found on another forum: 

"I have the brass style with the shoulder on the end. The little slip of paper indicated to measure to the top of that shoulder. When I rechecked everything this last weekend I set the brass floats at the specified setting of 1 1/16". Test run this time did not produce a fuel shower down the primaries. I believe the floats and float levels are OK now."

My floats did not come with that information so it looks like I have mine set wrong.  I measured 1 1/16" to the bottom of the float and not the shoulder.  I'll reset them and they will probably be pretty close to their old setting.  Since I only had one venturi leak at that setting, it may have been the O-ring which has been replaced. Still, I'm sure I'll open that carb a few more times so I'd like some more of those O-rings.

I'll still check the other things to be sure all is covered, but this may be the issue. 

My base gasket is starting to get hard so that's not gonna work for much longer.  I have an Edelbrock performer intake so I'm pretty sure I have enough room to add a spacer. 1/2" or1",I'll measure and get the tallest.  Which one is better again for more torque?  Open or 4 hole?

[Dino]

I set the floats to 1 1/16" measured from gasket to shoulder.  Once the engine was warmed up properly I adjusted idle and checked the venturis.  I saw fuel below the nozzles but nothing running or dripping out of the venturis so that's good.  I took it for a drive and it's less rich to be sure, but rich nonetheless.  Adjusting the idle mixture screws did not seem to do much, I have them at 2 turns out on each side.  Definitely less fuel coming out of the tail pipes, still burns your eyes a bit but you have to get quite a bit clor so that's at least a step in the right direction.

Again I had to refill the bowls but it fired up nicely.  I have no choke so I just kept the idle around 1500 and it never hiccupped as it used to do.  I let off the throttle and it settled into a nice idle, or as nice as it can be with this cam anyway.  Drivability wise it's a bit weird.  I feel I need to give it a lot of throttle to get it going although it's up to speed fast enough.  With these tall and widetires and tall gears it's not that easy to light up the tires but it still does it throughout first gear so power wise it seems okay.  The thing is, it runs way better in the higher rpm range than the lower.  Now I know that's because of the cam but it ran better before when the floats were too high so it seems a tad lean.  I "think" I can feel it wanting more fuel when I'm just bringing it up to speed so it may need nothing more but a slight adjustment.  I haven't played with the metering rods yet so that's probably the next thing to do.  In any case, when giving it light throttle it sounds a bit warbled but once you reach 2500 or so rpm it smooths out and feels like it kicks into another gear.  Do I have it too lean or too rich?  Timing is around 20 base because of the cam, vacuum is around 13-14 which I know will increase to 15 if I play with the timing, but then it'll be way too advanced.  I do have vacuum advance hooked up so should I disconnect that and try to tune the carb again?

When I removed the carb and dumped the fuel I checked the primary throttle blades, they uncovered about half of that little vertical slot.  There's also a small horizontal slot on one side and that's covered half as well.