[Socrates]

First off, will you be doing the work with parts swapping and tuning yourself, or will a shop be turned loose with your credit card? While the first response of a newbie is to throw money and new parts at a problem, most problems have a simple tuning cause at their root that, without extreme luck, shiny new out-of-the-box parts will not cure, at least not without tuning of their own. If you are lucky enough to find a mechanic that can and will work on an old car, he might only be familiar with a limited set of parts and want to put his favorite ignition and carb in play to get a good tune, which is fine. On the other hand, if you get your own hands dirty and have the time to spare, you can likely tune what you have just a well and possibly get the car running great with little to no money spent.

Your "hiccup every couple seconds" sounds like a lean cruising surge. This could be related to too much advance, perhaps from the vacuum advance, or too lean of a fuel mixture, with the former being the best place to start. I'd start with simply disconnecting and plugging the vacuum advance can and retesting to see if the problem goes away. The timing curve is of course crucial to a good tune and good performance. I've never come across an early Pontiac engine without a timing tab. Could you post a pic of your current cover and maybe get us the engine and head codes to find out exactly what engine you have here, and even the Q-jet id number as well to help with tuning here? With a little creativity you could add your own or add a new cover with an existing tab. This should be where you start, along with buying your own timing light, even a cheap one, long before buying a new carb or new distributor.

As to this issue "When you put your foot down it seems to have plenty of power once it revs up, but the power is inconsistent through the RPMs. After it hits ~3500 it "kicks in" and the motor really starts to scream" I'd guess your have the infamous Quadrajet Bog and the Q-jet secondary air flap tension needs adjusting. The secondary flap tension is set by a set screw and an adjusting screw on the passenger side rear of the carb. Set it to where just closes on its own then add another full turn on the screw and retest. If it still bogs, try subtracting 1/8 turn of tension (max!) and retesting to see if the problem goes away, repeating the process as needed. A good book on Quadrajets from Doug Roe or Cliff Ruggles would make you life easier here and walk you through this with pics and longer descriptions. Jim Hand's book on Pontiac engines is also essential reading for beginners. You could also search here for "quadrajet and bog" and get a few days worth or reading material from this site alone.