Mark Maras

Nope, not the "Yellow death". Jim is correct, it's the 8008 adhesive. Good tip on the 3M adhesive remover. I've never tried that.

The unknown black areas are or were undoubtedly rust. The black may be from a previous rust conversion using something like phosphoric acid.

Great news, the rain cleared most of the smoke out. Kinda weird to see Portlanders celebrating rain though. It may be a once in a lifetime event.

I prefer 3M Weatherstrip Adhesive. Available at O'Reilly.

Thunderstorms and rain last night. That should put the hurt on the fires and scrub some of the smoke from the air.

Visibility is still around 1/4 mile here. We're supposed to get some relief from it in a day to a day and a half and then a bit of rain that should clear more smoke out. Until then, it's N95s.

Portland. We're scrambling around here. As of this morning, more than 500,000 have evacuated their homes in Oregon. That's 1/10th of the population and most of those are on the west side of the state. Several small towns have burned to the ground and now the fires are heading towards larger towns. Molalla and Oregon City have been evacuated. One half mile visibility due to smoke yesterday. About the same today. The smoke is so dense you can look at the sun at noon without squinting. It's just a red dot in a dirty orange sky. The smoke goes up to around 10,000' and prevents fire fighting air drops from being used and firefighters on the ground from finding the fires. Rescue vehicles can't get to some areas. Yesterday they pulled ALL the firefighters back in to regroup and attack again. As of this morning none of the fires around Portland are contained. Parking lots are full of RVs and tents here in town. Hotels, Motels are full and we still have Covid-19 to deal with. We could use your prayers folks.

The metal FelPro gasket is my choice. Have you considered trying to straighten the warped flange? An oxy-acetylene torch, hammer and dolly would probably get it close enough to seal.

Home depot $4.94.

I doubt the shaft is made of stainless steel. Typically the bright finish is hard chrome over a higher carbon steel.

The oiling looks OK to me. Did you clean the oiling tube? The holes can become restricted with sludge. A torch tip file works wonders for opening them up.

A small amount escapes at idle. A towel along the edge is enough to catch it. Don't rev it with the cover off though (VOE), you'll spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the mess on the fender well.

The pressure reading from the auxiliary gauge is the best test but I'd have started it up by now. Oil flow up to the head indicates the oil pump is pumping. On initial start-ups I normally leave the valve cover off to check the oil flow to each cam lobe and watch the pressure gauge.

A feeling of entitlement and a lack of empathy. The two sides of the same narcissistic coin. Perhaps the origin of the term "dead right".

I'd be tempted to put (grind) a bit more taper in the leading edge.

Much better.

It looks like an over-inflated Z balloon to me.

Coughing from the carbs or tail pipe? I'm thinking it may be running lean. Is it possible that you changed the float setting when it was pushed with the straw? Also, did you remove or inspect the needle valve for crud?At this point, I'd pull both float chamber tops and compare the fuel levels.

I can think of one person!

The WD-40 straw is a great idea. I'd also pull the float cover, inspect the needle valve for foreign matter holding it open, float and float pivot to find the reason for the excess fuel.

I'm leaning (snort) to a fuel problem. I've experienced similar symptoms and found them to be water related. If you have any clear fuel filters, check those for water. I'd also pull a float chamber top to see if there is water in the bottom of the bowl(s).

Original tubes thread?

Congrats on the success. 23mm down is good. I'd try turning the nozzles up 1/4 turn just to see the effect and then probably reset them to 3 turns. 20 wt. oil is recommended. The thicker the oil the slower the piston and needle rise during acceleration but doesn't prevent the piston from going all the way to the top. That slow rise (restricted venturi) and the open butterfly, speeds up the air coming thru the venturi (piston bottom), drawing more fuel from the nozzle. That slower rise replaces the accelerator pump that is found on most carbs. I ran ATF in mine with no complaints.

Grab an implement of destruction (I use an ice pick) and probe everything that is suspect. You'll soon have a better idea of the extent of the damage and what will need to be replaced.

Search using the word "floats" and you'll find pics and discussion. You'll be looking for the depth of fuel in the float bowl. Measure form the top edge of the bowl down to the fuel level. Pics would be great. Also, while holding the cap and float assembly , with the floats hanging down, blow into the inlet tube. You should be able to blow air through it. Now slowly lift the float while blowing into the tube. When the float is lifted to about 9/16" from the bottom of the float cover, you shouldn't be able to blow through it.