I know what you mean.
I used to live on a canal house on davis island in tampa florida.
We had a christ craft cabin cruiser and it had a 327 chevy engine.
Well the intake manifolds didn't work too well on it and we'd blow an engine every once in a while.
So my brother and I usually had an extra engine in some
point of rebuilding.
Once complete we'd chain it to a couple of pillars on the patio and using an electrical fuel pump we'd use a half Gallon of gas and run it on the back porch without any EXHAUST MANIFOLD.
mAN WAS IT LOUD.
gREAT FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY OR New years.
Are you sure you guys weren't blowing motors because of burnt exhaust valves? :(