Smoker Mod Questions

[trp1fox]

I am almost done with refurbishing the NB Silver Smoker I picked up off craigslist for $40.00 I have all the mods done but have a question about the smoke stack.

From the picture you can see that there is a gap between the chamber and the stack. You can see all the way down into the smoker through this gap. My question is whether or not this has any impact on temp or smoke control. Should this gap be filled? I could use rope gasket or high temp silicon I suppose. Or should I just not worry about it?

[backyardchef]

The two suggestions you made would probably work just fine. I actually found, with my of char-griller, that putting some flashing inside the stack on the inside to lower it down to the cooking grate level made a difference and the flashing could be slid up inside the stack if I needed more clearance between it and the food. I then extended the stack outside of the pit, too, which helped improve the draft. I never sealed it up and it didn't make too much difference.