Great thread... after reading yours I decided to do a mileage check when my exhaust manifold blew the gasket and I found out my carb was just sitting on my intake by about 2 threads.
I also found out that my stock air cleaner with new paper filter seemed to hindering my cars performance and not letting enough air into the carb. I bought a Mr. Gasket chrome 1 barrel breather. I'll use the stock one when I show it and this one if the mileage gets better to drive every day,
I'm running in approx 100 mile increments. 1st pass was 16.6 and I'll probably fill back up in a day or so.
I also just found out today that all of my tires had about 80 pounds of air in them!!!! So I backed then down to 35.
Keep up the good work and keep us posted.
buds
chuck