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Randy did the same thing by same mechanic as I did. Had the very same problems with my 418W when the car was new 7 years ago. Crappy hard starting and gasoline odor in garage when parked. Had the carb drilled in metering block to relieve pressure when motor was hot, mitigating gas drooling into intake manifold making motor hard starting when hot. Bad for rings too with gasoline wash down on cylinders. I added a phenolic 1/2 inch spacer under carb also. That fixed the flooding condition forever. Running the motor for about a minute with electric fuel pump off will help your issue also by draining the carb.