OK, what's the reddish gunk between your intake and the carb? Were you trying to seal it? It LOOKS like you haven't completely seated the carb on the intake. The end of your intake pipe should appear in that void you point out in your first pic (the hole to the right of the screw). That'd be considered a HUGE air-leak. You should head to your nearest hardware-store and buy a black nitrile rubber o-ring to fit the carb-sleeve; I'm pretty sure it's a standard size...like a kitchen-sink faucet gasket. As for the leak (blue-liquid=gas+oil, right?), unless you have the same blue liquid coming out of your filter (the black skull's teeth), you should be OK. It may indicate a float-level problem at any rate. Look up instructions on correcting that using this site's search function. Look up "nt carb float adjustment". I think if you seat that carb on the intake properly, the "skull" won't give you clearance issues. If it still does, you can saw some of the teeth off, or consider buying an offset intake.
