Jason, The vacuum is not made from a system. It is created by the the pistons pulling in the air/fuel mixture.
To trouble shoot your problems, start small and go from there. Check the plugs, wires, cap, coil, filters, carb, etc.
If you have a quadrajet, check your intake manifold vacuum. The Quadrajet will react to low vacuum by letting the metering rod
out of the jets and feeding the engine a richer mixture ( Low vacuum happens when you accelerate or you have a leak)
If you have a repair manual, use the trouble shooting section and go step by step. You might find you have several small problems that
add up to one headache. Good luck