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what about the EGR can that come out with no ill effects?
You can remove the hose to it and flip it around so it's 'plugged' and that will eliminate it (remove the vacc. reservoir on the head/ 'the hockey puck with spaghetti coming out one side', and cap the tube on the side of the carburator that it was attached to).. if your car starts to ping under part throttle and cruise you will either have to 'recurve' the existing distributor, or leave the EGR in place to knock the 'knock back', you may have to give up a few degrees of timing, a smigde of power either way it goes... Eventually you'll be wanting to go for a super six setup and a better exhaust pipe for that mileage and power increase... 
Another thing on your 'to do' list will be to rebuild the carb if it's OEM (Holley 1945, circa 1974 model year...), and replace the main jet (just ask for one for a Holley 4 barrel they are the same) from a #58 to a #60-61 (like the 75-76 models)... (you will get a bit more power out of it, but if you put your foot into it, you will lose some mileage there too...
).good luck,
-D.Idiot