Nobody's debating that it's the single cause. You're right in thinking that it shouldnt die totally. You can tune that giant bog out. But, if you consider removing the carb, pulling the top, and peaking at it tuning, you're mistaken. You will need to buy the strip tuning kit, a vaccum gage, a timing tape, and a timing light if you dont have them. Then you'll need to start correcting one thing at a time. It will get a bit better. But when it's as good as you can possibly get it, you will switch the manifold, and it will be much better still. If you can borrow the timing light, the rest of the stuff might run you $75, mostly in the strip kit for the edelbrock carb.