I've gotten the facefull of fire on more than one occasion, try a makeup mirror to look down the bores if you value your eyebrows.
sudden out-of-nowhere starting and running trouble smacks of carburetion trouble to me. Fortunately with the edelbrock you can service the floats, needles and seats and everything else in the carb without removing it from the motor, and without spilling a drop of fuel.:blob:
