Feul delivery issue?

I'm stumped.
I have a 1982 xj550 maxim.
Last year I had to rebuild/clean the carbs because the bike began pouring feul from the carbs and wouldn't turn over.

After the rebuild it started up right away whenever it needed to, whatever the weather. It ran smooth and I was able to put some miles on it that summer almost every day.

This year after sitting the winter, it started pouring out feul again, but it turned over. It even ran while fuel dumped from the carbs.

I took off the carbs and saw that it was leaking from the carb feul tee.
I don't have money to replace it or upgrade to metal with o-rings. I ended up reinstalling it and put gasket sealer on the outer edges. But now it struggles to start without starting fluid.

I got it started the other day and I've been running it to temp, shutting it off, letting it cool, and running it to temp again without starting fluid. I took it for a ride on the third day and it felt off. Like it was sputtering or not firing on all cylinders.

Took a look at the plugs, the gaps were fine but they were a little charred. Tested spark, all good. Changed plugs, same thing.
I checked the petcock and feul filter, they both work perfectly.

Anyone know what the next step is, did I miss something? Did I cause the problem or is the primary issue finally showing itself?

 

could be sucking air through the seal on tee or the gasket sealer is inside carbs
fuel filter getting clogged
when you first fill the 550 bowls it requires you rap on the bowls with a screwdriver handle because the floats bind up on first fill

charred plugs? photo

 

Thanks, I was afraid the sealer might've clogged something. All 4 plugs were charred, though.

 

That doesn't look bad. You should expect a light brown color if its running right. You mainly look at the white electrode bit to read a plug.