diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/__init__.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/__init__.py
index af1cc3ec4..88c0a0436 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/__init__.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/conf/__init__.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ class Settings(object):
     core = None
 
     def __init__(self):
-        pickled_settings = os.environ.get("SCRAPY_PICKLED_SETTINGS")
+        pickled_settings = os.environ.get("SCRAPY_PICKLED_SETTINGS_TO_OVERRIDE")
         self.overrides = pickle.loads(pickled_settings) if pickled_settings else {}
         self.settings = self._import(SETTINGS_MODULE)
         self.defaults = {}
diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib/pbcluster/worker/manager.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib/pbcluster/worker/manager.py
index 391d54d4f..9d401f3e9 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib/pbcluster/worker/manager.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/contrib/pbcluster/worker/manager.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ class ScrapyProcessProtocol(protocol.ProcessProtocol):
         self.scrapy_settings = spider_settings or {}
         self.scrapy_settings.update({'LOGFILE': self.logfile, 'CLUSTER_WORKER_ENABLED': '0', 'WEBCONSOLE_ENABLED': '0'})
         pickled_settings = pickle.dumps(self.scrapy_settings)
-        self.env["SCRAPY_PICKLED_SETTINGS"] = pickled_settings
+        self.env["SCRAPY_PICKLED_SETTINGS_TO_OVERRIDE"] = pickled_settings
         self.env["PYTHONPATH"] = ":".join(sys.path)#this is need so this crawl process knows where to locate local_scrapy_settings.
 
     def __str__(self):