Well, guys, I added a gasket to the insulator so now there is one one each side. I am still only pulling on average 11 vacuum. I advanced the timing so far that I couldn't see the BB in the opening anymore with the timing light. When I bring it up to 2000 RPM, the vacuum reads 15 at the highest and when I bring it down to 800 RPM (the lowest it'll go before cutting out), it reads 11 again. What can I do next? This is killing me!

P.S. I still have a crackling sound in the carb. All the plugs are pretty nicely wet with gas (especially the 3rd and 4th cylinder). The washers that came with the plugs are pretty worn out... could that be it?