mines on my 87 trans am with a rebuilt engine. his is on a 79 camaro with a new top end. i have a holley carb he has an edelbrok. for both of our cars they are kind of hard to start but once they get going they run fine. on his he said he blew the gasket out of the fuel filter mine hasnt done that. im think the carbs need to be tuned for the hard starting. am i right in assuming this? but why would the gasket on his fuel filter blow out?

 

Are either of you running electric fuel pumps? Other than a fluke or a defect, the only thing I can think that would cause a gasket to blow out is too much pressure.

As for the hard start, are you pumping the gas before trying to start? Carbs don't have the luxury of an automatic priming like fuel injection does and will take a bit more to get going.