chris scammell

Thanks for the useful info folks, much appreciated. I will report back if I manage to solve it.

Hello. I am new here so before I explain the issue let me say hi. I am a pilot from Cumbria with 30yrs paragliding and hang gliding experience. I've dabbled with ppg for years but have more recently been committing more time to it and particularly enjoy long low XCs in the mountains in nil wind. Now then, I hope someone can shed some light on a niggling problem with my motor, a Polini Thor 80 (Polini CP carb) fitted to Pap 1400. 80hrs use. After a flight I notice that there is a lot of oil (amber, so unburned) splattered around the unit. After a lot of head scratching I think it is due to a fuel drip from the air intake silencer box. The visible oil splattered about is what is left after the fuel has evaporated. A bit of research led me to try changing the float needle valve in the carb, which I have just done. A quick bench test after the change and there is still fuel collecting in the air intake box, which gradually accrues over a flight then drips out getting sprayed all over the shop by the airflow. It makes a right mess and is also a fire hazard. My last resort will be to customise the air intake box so that I can rotate it and let gravity take the fuel back into the carb, but surely there is a way of tackling this at source. Why is fuel being blown the wrong way into the airbox? Otherwise the motor seems to run well and I generally burn around 2l/hr with my free flight wing. Any thoughts much appreciated. Chris