headers glowing red

[henrys57wagon]

On our 350" NHRA stock engine we removed the crappy HEI distributor the other night and installed an MSD with a small cap.
Last year you could not stand near the car without your eyes watering. We fired up the Nova(after sitting all winter) and set the timing to 15* at 2000RPM which is idle for this set up and checking the max timing which is 31*, we just wanted to get it running and then tune the dist after.
I noticed the headers glowing red. We shut it down and I removed the carb, by the way the exhaust was not the bit irritating this time.
Our thought is that the old dist was not igniting all the fuel which caused the crappy exhaust smell and now with the new dist it seems lean and needs to be richened up. I must add there is a 1/8" hole in each primary throtle plate and the idle screw is in to where the idle circuit is not functioning. I am going to try a non modified carb but would like some direction to head towards.
The carb is one I did about 20 years ago and when last run the car ran in the mid to low 12's.
So where would you direct me to look to get this thing back on track, we are not racing it this year but would like to drive it now and then, it is street legal(more or less) . Thanks, Henry