[squidtone]

Update: The modification worked; the bleeder orifice does immediately bleed off pressure to the carburetor when the engine is shut off (pressure goes to zero). When running, I lost just a little bit of pressure so I adjusted the regulator a tiny bit to get my pressure back to 1.5 psi.
Now, after shut off and a heat soak for a few minutes, I can restart in the hot state and it instantly starts right up. No more flooding.
In the picture you can see the pump with the output on the top left going up to the filter and then regulator. One output of the regulator goes to the brass block attached the carb with a banjo bolt. The far side of the brass block has the fuel pressure gauge. The near side of the regulator has the brass hose barb with my custom orifice to which the rubber line directs the excess pressure down to a "T" in the inlet side of the fuel pump.
(the other steel lines are vacuum lines from the bottom side of the fuel pump for vacuum wipers.)
Thanks for the comments!