Why does my car hate me ?

I'd ditch that fire trap air cleaner if it were me, had 2 of them catch fire from a small backfire, hell of a way to lose a nice car.
Yeah once that sponge gets gas on it and get caught on fire and gets sucked back down in your carburetor it's curtains... I don't even think those things should be legal....
I had to unlock your post as the person you quoted I have on ignore. How he's associating his two barrel to four barrel with this guy's four barrel and now going on to a starter... Well anyways LOL back to these carburetor issues LOL..,
I mentioned using non-ethanol gas especially in something that's not used all the time my lawn mowers my hot rods my snowmobiles that s*** all summer long.. my old truck I just restored I put regular ethanol gas in as I drive it all the time or at least as much as I can... If something's going to set for time I always put non-ethanol in it I don't need that ethanol attracting water and causing havoc in my small passages... Well not a guarantee it sure does seem to help...