Timing's been set by ear, by beer and by gear (light) and is as perfect as it gets. I've actually never had a Rover kick on this quickly. As soon as the key clicks, it's running. Hasn't gotten REALLY cold here yet, but that's a good sign.

Problem is, the black smoke with the STRONG gas smell, and more importantly, the plugs getting so sooted up in just about 10 hours of running that I had a no-start situation. Advancing the timing a bit didn't help enough to notice.

And leaning the mixture all the way out didn't do it, either. It's still carboning the plugs badly (brand new ones were full-black in less than 5 minutes), so it's likely gotta be the float level (or a hidden catastrophic fault in some other part of the carb). I recently did a rebuild on the Zenith (proline parts - yeah, I know, but $25 vs $200!!!!) and my measurments could have been off. So time to redo the float level.

This time I'm gonna pull the linkages and crack the carb right on the car.

My question (finally) is, anyone think I'll need a new top half to bottom half gasket? If so I want to get it ordered before I start the operation.