Hi all, and thanks for throwing in your !

Keep it up, and I'll have enough to buy lunch (at least for myself).

I think it gots to be fuel vapor.

Todd, I ran the pump yesterday and watched for leaks (because I figured maybe I shouldn't dismiss it out-of-hand so quickly) - none seen at the carbs, lines, or reg. Can't run the engine to see if it spits out the throttle shafts (was running at low throttle settings for the last 2 miles home; wouldn't it suck air instead of spit fuel?). Won't know that until the wires come. Didn't see anything out of the regulator (is up in that same area)

Yeah, I was REAL lucky to not lose the truck! I think I have to thank the burned heater hoses for spraying water when they went.

As far as the source of ignition goes... if it'd been set off by spark inside the cap, I'd expect to have seen soot in there. Probably. But, you never know...

'69', whether it was a hot header tube or a spark from inside the the cap or from the alternator (also nearby), we'll probably never know.

Stumpy and Harms, I'm using AVS carbs, 275HP/327 Chev carbs (seem to work okay; came bundled w/ the manifold); no dashpots, idle solenoids, or the like.

Yeah Robert, still waiting for the kid to come so I could post up pics from before I cleaned up. I'll throw up some pics from after I pulled the burned junk out that I sent to Rick at Firecore.

Disclaimer: they're from my cell, uploaded to snapfish - low res stuff! This one shows where I'm thinking of mounting the coil (off the motor; no more vibration) with the tower pointing AWAY from the top of the radiator (so if it gets sprayed, it won't douse the business end of the coil).