Rochester carburetor

I have finally gotten my 54 chevy 210 running. I have taken it out three or four times on half hour drives. Although it has some oil leaks I have to check out and have no idea how to go about I now have a gas leak from the carburetor. It has always leaked a little after I turn the engine off but this was gushing while the engine idled. It was running fine until the time before it started to stall idling at red lights. A friend said to use a lead additive as old cars hate today's gas. I decided to turn up the idle and took it out and it ran fine other than just having to use more brakes to stop. I figured I didn't need the idle that high when I got home so I turned back down to a reasonable level. I still didn't notice any leakage. Just before I was going to shut the hood I noticed the gushing gasoline. So I shut the engine off, moved my motorcycle so I could put the car away for the night, went back to start it and couldn't get it to start. Had to push it into the garage. I am guessing, with my limited knowledge, that I flooded the engine and that it leaked all that gas while running because I had the idle really high. Can anyone shed some light on this and maybe tell me if my thinking is reasonable. Could I have caused this leakage by having the idle so high? Thanks in advance.

 

turning up the idle would not cause this, needle and seat where gas enters the float bowl is probably stuck, with all your gas tank issues there is probably some crap in there.

 

Thanks. Now I have somewhere to start.

 

i would recommend a carb rebuild, blow out the lines and filter change to start. get that squared away first then clean your engine really well (pressure washer)and start looking for oil leaks

 

x2. There are a couple of things to check.

1) Take the top off of your carb and check the needle and seat. As 2racer mentioned, there might be a speck of rust or something in there that is keeping it from closing all the way. Make sure to run a good fuel filter.

2) Is your float level set too high?

3) Check your fuel pressure. These carbs don't like more than about 3 lbs in my experience.

 

Gas tank building up pressure can also add to this...make sure the cap is vented...