That is completely possible. My friend had a dodge ram with a 225 that had a bunch of stuff unhooked. We got it all sorted out and it ran for about 50 miles until the carb got trashed.
In all honesty, with how much this car gets used, that's probably about what had been put on it since everything was hooked back up. After the rebuild it idled for five minutes, drove all of 30 feet, and then started to run terrible again but it did make it back home. I'll just take it apart myself tomorrow and clean it out again. The grandson of the old lady I got the car from did it for me because I was working and I must say he did quite well for his first time and not knowing what he was doing with a carburetor. We're both early 20's, but I only work on and know 1990 and older, whereas he does anything newer.