Popping a burst panel making us show lean??

We blew our first burst panel last weekend in the SBC, it also burnt one ground strap off and a few others were close.

I think the whole thing started with valve lash going away on one cyl and holding an intake valve open.

I was at the far end and heard it coming, it popped, stuttered, driver pulled chute and went to nuetral, the motor took off so he put it back in gear to calm it down. I think the plates/barrel valve being closed with the panel open made it go lean and us being in gear put just enough load on the motor to burn ground straps.... The pistons look fine, but the exhaust valves and most of the plugs are white.

What do ya think?

 

The burnt ground strap would have caused the panel to blow, which caused the engine to rev. The damage had already been done, the open burst panel would not have caused a lean condition, there was no load on it at that time. If the lash went away, it definitely could have caused one of the other pistons, or the rest of the motor, to take more of a load, especially if your tune up was close. Fix whatever valve train problems you have, and just to make sure, check that there are no plugged nozzles or fuel lines.

 

If it leaned out (for whatever reason) and heat warped (and stretched so your lash went away) an intake valve, the next time that cylinder fired it would light the air/fuel in the intake which would blow out the burst panel. This makes the idle RPM go up because you now have a "vacuum leak"