Fuel leak when parked - carburetor?

edo2000

edo2000

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Sep 26, 2015
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edo2000
A couple of days ago I stopped by my hangar to go flying a little before going out of town. The last time I flew was about 1 week prior. There was a note on the seat of my airplane from my hangar mate. He said the airplane was leaking fuel and he had turned the fuel selector to OFF. The floor was dry, but there was a fuel stain on the floor directly under the engine. I checked my tanks (I had filled up before parking) and it looked like I had lost approx. 2 gals out of the left tank. I'm not sure when my buddy found the leak, I haven't spoken to him yet.

I turned the fuel selector back on (left tank) and waited about 20 min. I could not see any drips anywhere, even using a flashlight inside the cowling, but access to the lower engine is limited with the cowl on. I preflighted and did an extensive run up check, then flew for 45 min. No issues noted. I parked, shut the fuel off, and then headed out of town on business.

I plan to address this as soon as I get back home. The engine is a 0-320 Lyc, in a Van's RV, which I recently purchased. It has run like a top for the 20 hours I have flown it so far. Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.
 
I'd look for fuel stains near the carb or the gascolator. I've had both a stuck float (whack the side of the carb a few times with a screwdriver handle and hopefully it'll drop, then get it overhauled) as well as a bit of debris in the gascolator drain cause a little dribble.
 
Float might have a hole in it or the float height might be set wrong (there is a distance spec). Possible leak out the drain valve if you have one. Is it a Marvel Schebler carb?
 
Thanks, guys. I'll report back when/if I figure out what it is. It is a M.S. carb.
 
Personally, I'd avoid flying anything with a potential fuel leak in the future. The only thing that scares me about airplanes is a fire.
 
George Mohr said:
Personally, I'd avoid flying anything with a potential fuel leak in the future. The only thing that scares me about airplanes is a fire.
Click to expand...

My thought is to avoid flying anything with an actual fuel leak (any and everything is "potential") unless I know for sure where the leak is and the impact. Sump drain on wing with very slow drip? OK to get it to maintenance. Anything in engine compartment including carb? No go. Anything in cabin for fuel selector? No go.
 
Your mechanic may be able to take the bottom off a MS carb and put sealant on the drain valve and adjust the float height without removing the entire carb. Make sure he has the correct spec for adjusting the float height. Also a sunk float is easy to overlook. The MS floats that I have seen have two floats and will work with a hole in one, though they tend to leak with one sunk. They designed it that way. The new floats are plastic and better IMO. It will save you money if you can get him to do that rather than try and sell you on a complete rebuild. Good luck.
 
Had a friend who flew with a carb leak that he knew about which combined with some other misadventure (late arrival and customs at the original airport closed), ended up with him running out of fuel. He got reamed pretty hard by the FAA, etc... for flight with a known mechanical defect.
 
Did you figure this out? I'm having same problem. Leak isn't continuous, just seeps out for 15-90 seconds after shutdown. (The former isn't such a big deal; the latter makes a mess!)
 
Glenn got the ejection handle pulled???!
 
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