Ok, take a few deep breaths and repeat after me: "The Slant 6 engine is one of the best engines ever built -- with the obvious exception of the sbc of course". It may have problems to begin with, but once they're worked out it will last forever. Now, look up Slant Six Forum on Google. You will find a world of information, knowledge and help. Once running, look at SlantSixDan's thread on HEI distributor convesion for the Slant 6. Its worth doing and can be done with junkyard parts. When you've finally got everything figured out and its running smoothly see if you can find a book by Tom Condran called "Performance Handling for Cl***ic Mopars". He will inspire you. And, remember, it is the difficult challenges that help us discover who we really are.
X2 on the blast resistor! I had troubles at the dragstrip years ago in a 69 Dodge. It ran great at idle, but it kept acting like it was running out of gas on the top end. Drove me crazy replacing fuel pump,filters, etc! Finally discovered a cracked ballast resistor. Problem solved!
To add my 2 cents to this old thread, I learned to carry an extra ballast resistor around with me like a spare tire. Always keep a spare in the glove box. Points type ignition or electronic.