A friend gave me a red Brinkman Gourmet smoker that he received years ago from Marlboro. My searches on the internet brought me to some interesting sites on how to upgrade or modify this smoker. I jumped in with both feet and added 3 round dampers on the bottom of the tray, put in an elevated charcoal basket, vented the cover and added an accurate thermometer. My problem is during my dry runs, it runs way too hot. Even if I close all damper it only throttles down to about 350. This is with water in the pan. I tried the Minion method with both briquettes and lump charcoal, only adding about 20 lit embers to the pan. However, when the unlit coals begin to light, I'm back up to 350-400 in no time. Any ideas?