Thanks all for your responses, that Dave will read himself. Yes, Don Verity is quite right, there is no road draft tube, but I fail to see how that would have any effect on the "situation". Both valve covers were vented through the oil caps. And Dave had just driven the car for quite some miles when the incident happened. I also offered Dave my opinion that the fuel pump was suspect, based mainly on his description of the fuel smell in the oil. There must have been a LOT of fuel vapors, to cause the valley pan to buckle outwards ! John Hertog Sag Harbor NY ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Verity" <d.verity@xxxxxxx> To: "Chrysler 300 Club Listverver" <Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "John Hertog" <crossram@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 1:34 PM Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] things that go BOOM > Hi All, > I talked to Dave on the phone yesterday, and the thing you all don't know > is that he does not have any PCV system, OR road draft tube. He has two oil > caps on the engine and nothing is pulling the fumes out of the crankcase. He > did not have an excessive amount of gas in the oil, as he only drained out > about 4 or 5 qts. This car is usually only driven from the trailer to the > show field, and doesn't get regularly warmed up to burn off the impurities > in the oil. All this seems to point to fumes in the crankcase as the likely > cause of the boom. > Although I didn't witness it, a similar thing happened to my supercharged > E sometime before I bought it. A burned piston turned out to be the ignition > source, but the result was the same. Almost blew off one valve cover, and > pushed up the valley gasket. It also resulted in an engine fire that burned > the wiring and hoses. This was likely in 1967 or so, and it hasn't run > since. > 300ly, > Don > ----- Original Message ----- > From: John Hertog <crossram@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > To: Chrysler 300 Club Listverver <Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 3:02 PM > Subject: [Chrysler300] things that go BOOM > > > To all weekend diagnosticians: > > so... Dave Clelland finally decides to drive his 300G rag somewhere... > (yes, Peter Fitch, he DID drive it ! ) ... after a 45 minute ride, he > arrives at a car show..... and BOOM. Big explosion under the hood. Enough > of a BOOM to wake up the neighborhood; enough to blow the oil cap (breather) > right off the valve cover, and enough to blow the intake manifold pan ... > outwards, and cause it to bulge out so far that it actually interfered with > the throttle linkage under the rams. > > Yes, the car restarted and still runs OK; and, yes, Dave does smell gas in > the oil. Question is: how did it get there ??? obviously, there was > enough of a buildup of gas fumes in the cranckase to cause this explosion. > > anyone ever hear of something like this ? Comments? Please "reply to all" > so Dave can read the posts... > > John > > > > > > > > To send a message to this group, send an email to: > Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > For list server instructions, go to > http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Autos. Everything you need to know about buying or selling a car. FREE Quotes, 360° Tours, Research, Blue Book, Compare Vehicles, Buy Used http://us.click.yahoo.com/kEZsdA/bwnGAA/YiGOAA/8LmulB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To send a message to this group, send an email to: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For list server instructions, go to http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chrysler300/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/