Hello Robert and list readers,
Robert you did not mention a year for this Chevy v6 that you were working
on.
I would assume that it is a vehicle with an electronic fuel pump because you
wrote "forgot to hook up the fuel lines to the throttle body".  The turning
on of the key would activate the electronic fuel pump and gas could have
probably flowed in to the engine.
Now other questions are how much gas might have got inside the engine and
did it get on to both heads?  What actually sparked the gas to cause the
explosions?  I am guessing that the gas did not ignite in the oil pan since
you did not mention bending of the oil pan.  So the question is what ignited
the gas under each valve cover in a relatively close time frame to cause
consecutive back fires?
Could moving valve train engine parts to cause sparks to ignite the gas?
What is the probability of that happening consecutively on opposite sides of
the engine?
Does this particular engine have crank case vents on both valve covers?  If
so, could a out of time spark plug sparked at a time when a valve was open
while gas vapors were starting to be sucked through the tubes leading from
the valve covers?
Why play with gas engines?  See we don't have these kind of problems with
diesel engines.  I am only trying to kid you.  I guess you can tell that I
am partial to diesel engines.

It will be interesting to read any other replies that you get on this one.

Art
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert J. Moore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 11:28 AM
Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Blown out valve covers


> Hear is a brain teaser for all you mechanics
> A friend and I were replacing the intake manifold gaskets on a Chevy v6.
> Hear is how it went.
> We got it all disassembled, cleaned up and gaskets in place and the
manifold
> reinstalled. the valve covers were still off and the distributor was back
in
> place. My friend wanted to check some thing and had me turn over the engin
e.
> After I turned on the key he abruptly said turn off the key . What's up I
> said. I just forgot to hook up the fuel lines to the throttle body.
> Ok no problem. the rest went ok until we went to set the timing and try to
> start it. At this point every thing was back together except the air
> cleaner. After several attempts at turning over the engine and checking
the
> timing and the firing order we tried one last time. That is when some
thing
> vary strange happened. I heard 2 consecutive back fires which were more
> intense than I had ever heard from an engine before. We checked it out and
> discovered that both of the valve covers had blown outward from the
inside.
> Now my question is how could the thing back fire through the valve train.
I
> thought that there would only ever be vacuum under the valve cover.
> I think I know what happened.
> re read the above carefully and I think you might figure it out. If you
come
> up with the  same  conclusion I did you get a gold star.
> So what do you all think?
> I will post my conclusion later.
>
>
> Ps
>
> We did get the valve covers streightened out, got the timing wright and it
> runns better than ever and we all lived happelly ever after.
>
>
>
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To listen to the show archives go to link
 http://acbradio.org/handyman.html
or
ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/

The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is.
http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday

The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is.
http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml

Visit The New Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various 
List Members At The Following Address:
http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/
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