318 2bbl won't idle without choke

Well the saga continues - I took the carb apart again and am now confident that all passages are clean and the float height is at 1/4". I also realized I was missing the smaller check ball that goes in the venturi assembly. Now, the car runs worse than ever (won't rev at all), and fuel still drips from the venturis at idle.

When I was re-rebuilding it, there was a small gasket that I had installed on the bottom of the power piston. It's like a small rubber cup that came with the kit. However, it doesn't seem to really stay attached to the piston when the piston moves upward and just kind of hangs out there at the bottom of the barrel. It also doesn't appear on any of the diagrams as far as I can tell. However, I'm going to try putting it back in since it's the only thing I changed besides cleaning passages and putting that check ball in.

I'm also skeptical of the fuel level. I know the floats are adjusted right - I've triple checked. When I took the air horn off, the bowl wasn't overflowing or anything like that either. If I pushed down on the floats by hand, I'd get a spray of fuel into the carb bowl, so I know the needle is seating at least with the engine off. However, when running the top gasket between the body and the air horn gets visibly wet with fuel. Is it possible that the running fuel pressure is too high and forcing its way past the float valve?