The year was 1966 and my friend had bought a new Chev Impala two door. A really beautiful car at that time. As Xmas was approaching, he and his wife went out of town for the holidays. The car was left at the airport for the 10 days they were to be away. It was plugged into the outlets for the block heaters.

The weather during that time was sort of like what we've been experiencing in the past couple of weeks. Darn cold! -40 every night and not much more during the day!

When my friend returned home, the car would just turn over but not fast enough to start. He persisted until the battery ran down then called me for a 'boost'.

I went out to the airport and we hooked up the booster cables. The car turned over pretty well but it was obviously flooded as a white wisp of smoke trickled out of the exhaust pipe.

I told him to just hold the throttle open and not to 'pump' it as that would help to clear the flooded cylinders. Somehow he just couldn't resist pumping that pedal so I told him to stop while I removed the air cleaner. Taking that off, I stuck my hand in the carburetor and held the choke open and with the other hand, held open the throttle. "Now" I said; "give that a try". Well, that engine cranked over for a bit then started to fire but wouldn't really catch. We let it rest a few minutes and then I told him we'd try again and if it was firing to keep turning it over on the starter til it ran.

Well, it tried to start and all of a sudden it backfired and a flash of flame about 3 feet long came out of the carburetor. I jumped back, having singed my hand, and the car let out an explosion and leaped a foot in the air. The oil filler cap came whizzing by my head like a bazooka shell and we never did find it. That was the end of trying to start that car as the valve covers were ruptured and pieces of cast metal from around the block were lying on the ground.

When that engine backfired, instead of keeping the starter cranking to suck the flame into the cylinders, my friend stopped cranking and the flame went down into the pan which was now full of raw gas from all that throttle pumping! It exploded in the pan with the results I just mentioned. The car was towed to the dealers and after replacing the valve covers and other parts, along with an oil change, it ran OK.

After 30,000 miles he had to have the crankshaft bearings replaced but he kept the car about 10 years.

Cheers George