What causes this with carbs
 

Ok guys, I know this is kind of a dopey question, but here goes. I noticed two of the pre-atomizers on my zeniths were sort of "mushed" at the top. I figured the PO bashed them up somehow. Then I noticed on ebay a set of zeniths with exactly the same thing, but with four of the atomizers. Here's the pic:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1141454499.jpg

So my question is this: what causes this deformation? Physical abuse? Carb fire? (they almost look melted), act of God?

Stephen:

Yessir, those things backfired (too lean or wrong timing) and they melted.

Time for new ones.

I figured that was the case. I'm glad mine aren't as bad as the ones in the pic. Two of my atomizers are slightly bellmouthed, so I'm hoping I can replace them with good spares and leave it at that. Is it a problem of repeating backfire, or just one good spitback? Those atomizers are pretty thin, but I would think it would take some heat to completely melt the whole top of the tube. I weld aluminum on a fairly regular basis, and it takes a large heat input to have it flow easily.