Saltiga, Keoke has mentioned some of the causes. Unfortunately it is a combination of eveything. I happen to believe that an overly lean mixture which contributes to excessive heat helps to contribute to it. Also an overly rich mixture which tends to leave unburned fuel causes it as well. In my opinion, whatever contributes to heat will contribute to a run-on condition. An inefficient cooling system, lean carburation, too much advanced timing, too hot of a spark plug, too fast of an idle. Too much carbon in the cylinders, (helped by to rich of a carb mixture). I just tuned up my Healey last week. Sometimes in the past it would run-on and it felt a little sluggish on the first outing this year. Looking at the plugs I decided that my carbs were alittle lean, so I richen them just a tecsh. My points were closed up almost half of what the specification is to be. The timing was at about half what it should have been. Probably at about 3 or 4 degrees before TDC. My idle was tending to be too slow so that at times I would pull the choke out just to increase the idle. Which of course richened the mix. So I put in new points and condenser, new plugs, and set the timing at about 10 degrees BTDC. That brought my idle up to about 1000 rpms. That's too much for me. So instead of adjusting the carbs, which i have said i already richened them a tesch, I backed my timing off a wee bit with the advance/retard micro adjust wheel on the distributor till the idle dropped to between 800 and 900 rpm. I know that by doing this I will have no risk of pre-ignition. The car runs great, the water temp is between 170 and 180 F. and their is no run-on. I'd say a super good tune up is the best defense against run-on.