Van was correct, it was a vacuum leak, but not in the place we suspected. Long story short, I touched the intake with a power tool while I was changing the intake gasket. Had a small, very small, hole in #3 intake runner. J.B. Weld to the rescue.
The car started and ran very well. After warm up and setting the idle at 1000 RPM and getting the Temp. up to 140 degrees F, it was very responsive and ran very well. I am ready for the track.
Oh, on the spark plugs. I swapped #6 and d#8, using the same plugs that were in there. Number 6 cylinder came up to normal temp. (approximately the same as all the others, except #7 and #8 were about 100 degrees cooler than the average of the others). The suspect is the 1″ open spacer that I have always run. Edelbrock and AFR (Heads) do not recommend the spacer. I will remove the spacer after making a few passes.
All I need to do now is clean the car. I did the truck a week ago.