I got my Holley 4150 back together, bolted her into the 69 z/28 and went to "fire" it up. After cranking the engine a bit to fill the fuel bowls, it started up and sounded fine. Just as I started to pat myself on the back for a job well done, a fire broke out. It appeared to be coming straight out of the center of the carb. It burned pretty good for about a minute or so while I tried to decide whether to save the car, the house or just end it all and throw myself into engine bay.

It seemed to die out shortly after I came to my senses and shut the car off. The only visible damage, other than the soiled hood...and my soiled pants for that matter...appear to be deformed spark plug wires at the base of the distributor and a melted wiring for the hood lamp.

While I am not an expert, as some who answered my questions during the rebuild know, the carb rebuild seemed to go very well. I thought everything went back together with all the right parts and gaskets and I made the proper adjustments to the floats, idle speed, idle mixture, etc.

I know this is something that is hard to diagnose with such limited info but I have to ask...

1. Is there anything obvious that would have caused this?

2. What kind of damage to the carb and/or engine could the fire have caused?

3. What should do now? My gut is to try it again tomorrow (outside of the garage) as long as the spark plug wires look OK. Is this asking for trouble and more damage?

As always, thanks.

Jay

If there wasn't a backfire then you have an electrical arc somewhere under the hood. I bet your coil (if it's mounted on the manifold) arc'd and ignited the squirt from the accl pump nozzles.

The coil is mounted on the manifold and I failed to mention that I did not have the air cleaner on.