stromberg carb jet plug drip.

[Nick T]

Hi, I have a slight fuel drip from one of my jet plugs on the stromberg carb on my 51 Buick, is this a major problem it seems to dry up when the engine is running.
But could this be a fire hazzard with a hot exhaust manifold if i get a slight drip while running the engine.
Thanks for any help given on this matter.
Regards
Nick.

[Tom Barnes]

Hi. As I remember those plugs required a gasket. It was a tiny hard meterial. There were several gaskets of similar size and crossection. Those gaskets were a hard substance. It's always possible that someone used a wrong size gasket. Or, this is most likely, it just got hard over time. You should probably address the situation because it's never good to have fuel dripping on a manifold. Those fires can be so hard to put out. Don't be tempted to use a product that cements the plug in, you can't properly clean the carb later without removing those plugs and jets.

[telriv]

That gasket spoken about is actually a piece of copper. NO gasket, hard or otherwise, will permanently seal gasoline. YES, IT IS A FIRE HAZARD!!!!! ESPECIALLY DRIPPING OVER A HOT EXHAUST MANIFOLD. You don't need liquid to combust as the FUMES are far MORE explosive than the actual liquid. Just about ANY automotive parts store should have a variety of these gaskets as they are used on MANY older fuel injection systems. Could be the plug just needs a little tightening.