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Originally Posted by moxiepilot  ONLY if you have a horizontally opposed carbureatour, not a vertically opposed one. because then the fuel does not come back down into the box. A number of fires start that way, like you said. |
When you talk about carburators, they are called updraft, side draft and down draft. The side drafts mounted on the back of some of the lycomings (like in the Seminole) are more resistant to induction fires, because they have a valve in the bottom of the induction manifold that will drain the fuel onto the ground under the engine. This is still not the greatest scenario though. If someone goes overboard you will get quite a puddle under the engine. If the valve doesn't work, you can still get a fire. Sometimes the valve will stick open and the engine will run lean (had this happen once). The engine ran very rough and was backfiring on the ramp.