I was breaking in the cam on my newly installed 455. Unknown to me the long branch manifold was laying against the rubber of my motor mount and caught fire. Had to scramble for the fire extinguisher. Had no idea what was burning. I was having a panic whether I filled the oil or not.

Not sure why they were touching. I assume just extra rubber on the crappy Indian motor mounts

[censored], of all the things to happen when first firing an engine and breaking in the cam that's one of the worst! No one needs that kind of stress especially at our age. I would have to see them side by side, but I think your right that your new mount looks thicker than a factory mount. One thing I would ad is to make sure the timing is close and especially that it's not running lean at the part throttle setting that is required for cam break-in. I have seen manifolds glow red when not set up right.

Good thing it didn't touch or burn through the rubber fuel line!

I saw that fuel line there when I took the pic. That would have been really bad.

I had a lifter fail so there was some serious clacking noise to go along with it. I thought I was getting catastrophic engine failure. Next job is to tear back into it and get the lifter out and see WTF. Crappy Chinese lifter or no oil getting to it? Hopefully the cam is OK

I hope that pic is an "after" shot and you don't have powder everywhere

I didn’t empty the extinguisher. It took a short squirt to put it out. There was powder all over. I blew it off with air. I’m still tasting that stuff.