Lack of carb/tuning exp talking

[KiltedBanshees93GT]

I'll answer waht I know so far:
Dark Knight: I do need to check the timing, but I have to get a decent t-gun first (most likely next paycheck, the one I have is for crap)
As far as vacume leak, for all intents and purposes, the car doesent have a vac tube system. The dist. is capped, and there are no other vac tubes on the engine.

Rev: As far as turning the idle down, I havent tried screwing with it without some info to refer to, like I said, I'm kinda paranoid about playing with it at this point due to lack of exp. (I know how to, but the only carbs I've played with were quadrajunks, years ago, and I'm just not feelin' that frisky without more info)
The car seems lean on several cylinders according to the plugs, but seems rich when I get on the gas (lots of smoke at warmup and WOT,unless I'm reading it wrong*quite possible*)
As for the carb, its a Holley 4160 (aka model 7154) that looks about older than dirt, hence my rebuild question. BTW, can someone define the difference between various Holley part numbers vs. carb numbers? Same general design but different years?
Is there any way to look up the specifics of my model?

Can anyone tell me more about this particular model, and would I maybe be better off shopping for a newer/more advanced one?

Thanks again,

J