Long winded holley 2 barrel question....

so this is going to be long winded, but i have a basic question. Got a side job de-smogging/re-wiring/tuning up a 78 W100. 360 4 speed. turns out this thing is a factory mongoloid. this truck only has 37,000 original miles, service records since new, its literally a time capsule. however upon working on this thing it turns out it was wired and setup for an automatic, but was factory ordered with a stick. I found the build sheet to prove this. It had 2 factory starter relays (both were for an automatic setup ie: 2nd spade for the safety switch) with factory molded connections to jump between the 2 relays....talk about messed up. The carburetor has the kickdown stud, and the throttle bracket has the provision for a kickdown linkage, the neutral safety switch wiring is all there (truck 4 speeds in the 70s didnt have one), and was hooked into the 1st starter relay for obviously no reason. Also half of the wiring is 79, and the rest 78. there is a huge difference between those years because in 79 dodge started putting diagnostic connectors in their harnesses. this truck has it all....except the connector, and all the wires just lead to dead ends. Anyway now ive moved on to the p.o.s. holley 2210\2245 two barrel thats feeding this very sad 360. has ANYONE had any luck or any good experience with these pieces of poo? the three that i burned through (literally roasted) in my cordoba were the worst user-friendly carburetors i have come around to date. so if anyone has any sort of pointers....id muchly appreciate it. thank you!