I put a GM goodwrench "universal" 350 in a '86 chevy pickup with a edelbrock performer and edelbrock 1406 carb. I can not slow down the idle without the pickup dying. I have removed the egr equipment. Could this be a vacuum leak? Do I need to replace the distributor?  

use some water in a squirt bottle to see if the base gasket is leaking... and the intake gaskets...

edelbrock has a great trouble shooting manual online...

is it coming down off fast idle with the choke totally open??

the screws on the front are for mixture .. the screw on the driver side is for idle speed...

and i take it you are not talking about the torque converter clutch not releasing when you come to a stop sign..??????/  

I just put the engine so have not been able to drive it since I can't get it to idle at a lower speed. I will see if I can find a vacuum leak on the intake manifold. I have a holley 600 that I put on it today and still have the same issue so I don't think it is carb related, but will look again for vacuum leaks. I just started wondering if it was something to do with the distributor instead.  

Sounds like a vacuum leak to me.Check all intake vacuum ports and carburator vacuum ports and make sure they are used or pluged.  

I never could find a vacuum leak so I bought a new distributor from Summit to replace the stock which had the ESC. This corrected my issue, now I can set the idle down to where it belongs and this engine runs strong. Just my luck I guess.