thoughts on the edelbrock sp2p manifold

My Dad had a '77 Dodge D-150 with a 318 that never did run very well. He drove it for many years not being satisfied with it's performance but he would never let me work on it to any extent. Then, one day one of his chemistry students bought a used Chrysler Cordoba and and told him it came with an aluminum manifold in the trunk. He asked if my Dad wanted and for some strange reason my Dad said he'd take it. He asked me if I had a carb that would fit it and asked if I'd install it for him. I had an R1850AAS in my cabinet so I installed his SP2P and that carb. After tuning it the net effect of the change was absolutely ZERO! It made a little more noise at full throttle but had no additional torque , power, gas mileage...nothing!! A waste of time and a gasket set. It should have been left in the trunk it was found in. About a year after that my Dad and Mom went on a vacation to the east coast in their Buick. The local speed shop had ordered a Crower cam for a guy and accidentally ordered the wrong number so they had this mild cam, called a Performance Level 2, on the shelf they wanted to sell cheap so I made him an offer and he took it. He also had a used Offenhauser Dual Port 360 manifold to part with cheap so I picked it up too. I drug them over to my Dad's house and began some unauthorized Dodge work. I installed the cam kit, put in a slightly used 340 timing chain (which probably had more effect on the outcome than anything) and the Offenhauser DP360 with the R1850AAS back on top. Pulled the dist. and welded up the slots to allow a decent amount of initial timing (which probably had the next most effect) and tuned it up. I parked it back in the same spot my Dad left it. Shortly after my Dad returned he called me and asked what I had done to his pickup. I kind of played dumb for a while but he was ecstatic that his pickup ran like he thought it should have for years so I fessed up. After he drove it for a while it had more torque, more power, ran smoother and got better gas mileage.
All this dialog is to tell you that installation of an SP2P is a waste of time and a gasket set, and to tell you that with some minor additional work there are manifolds that would be a much better alternative. Ie performer, Offy Dual port 360, etc.etc.