how hot is too hot

I have an eddie on my 318 cop car and had much the same problem with eratic idle and hard hot starts.

Heres what to do;Run the motor till it's up to normal operating temp. Shut the engine off,pop the hood and remove the air cleaner housing. Listen closely to the carb. If you can hear frying/sizzling sounds,that eddie is too hot!

To compensate I put in an aluminim spacer.In between the spacer/manifold is a thick 1/4 gasket. In between the carb and spacer is another 1/4 gasket. If this doesnt help your situation,you will need a composite spacer of some kind. Insulating your fuel line may help as well.And someone here mentioned a black fuel tank as being a bad idea,as the black color would soak up heat.

The pair of 1/4 gaskets has the added benefit of increasing your plenum length by 1/2 and is cheaper than buying a composite spacer.Maybe give that a shot before bucking up for the fancy spacer.