[Leon Rennebaum]

Worked at a service station while going to college. We all had souped up street cars and a couple of drag cars. One weekend home from school, I was tasked to put together a 283 street engine for a parts getting 64 El Camino. Returned the following weekend to screaming and yelling that I had screwed up the engine because it smoked when warmed up. Fired up the car and waited for the smoke – strange thing was that it didn’t smell like burnt oil, it actually smelled like a campfire! Popped the hood and looked over the engine. It seems they didn’t have a stainless steel type gasket for the exhaust heated quadrajet manifold and had, instead, used a piece of plywood for a carb spacer. The wood was actually burning producing the charcoal smelling smoke! My engine assembly prowess was never questioned again!