[kwm]

I started my 83SC up last night to check the oil level. When I did she backfired which was a first. Thank God for the pop off valve. The backfire did blown the air box cover off thought and the old straps snapped in half. I have them rigged up until I can get some new ones. Is timing the only thing that can cause a backfire? Any time I ever had a car backfire on me before it was a domestic with carbs or my bike that has carbs. I have never known anything w/o carbs to backfire. I drove the car all this past fri,sat,sun everything working fine. Also, I decided to replace my hood struts last night b/c I am sick of my front trunk cover whacking me in the head. Got the brand new struts on and the damn thing still slams shut even quicker than before. With the old worn out struts sometimes if you pumped the hood up and down it would stay. How can brand new hood struts not hold it up? These struts are stiff as hell too. If you try to compress them by hand it is not even doable. Anyone else replaced their struts only to have the hood slam shut like before. My latest idea is to get a long hood prop rod from some other car at a junk yard and fab up a way to mount it in the front of the trunk and set up a prop point on the hood. Any other ideas? Thanks