12Pack

When I bought the car and he started it it didnt stay running and kept dying... he said it was because there was a small leak in the intake. When I brought it home a buddy of mine said that the flows in the carb were bad and since I had no air cleaner on at the time it was getting to much air and kept dying. I have the air cleaner on there now and it still dies.. How can I tell if its from the flows in the carb or the vacum leak? I mean I dont wanna slepd $250+ on a new carb. The carb on there now is a Holley 650 double pumper if that helps.

Edit: When I took it for a test drive the pedel would stick at like 3000 and every time id let off the clutch it would spin the tires, so fixing the springs on the carb it still was idling high, i turned it down but it still dies