As with cars and houses, most repairs done to meet the requirements of a new buyer are done on a “minimal” basis 
This is why it is better to knock down the price by the same amount and get the work done yourself. And if you do a deal whereby the seller will do an Annual before the sale, get that Annual done by your engineer with the seller paying the cost, otherwise you are running a high risk of a dodgy Annual.
I also have too many stories, especially recently, of prebuy inspections having been done badly. There is currently nobody at all I know who offers this service and who I could recommend. My engineer is good but he would rarely travel outside the UK, and he spends 2 days on a prebuy so it would not be cheap.
Back to starting, there seem to be as many “best way to start” tips as there are pilots, especially for hot starts and especially for fuel injected engines. In most cases, however, the POH contains the best way.
What crappy fuel system design allows fuel to squirt out somewhere under the cowling if the wrong procedure is used? With the IO540 system there is nowhere for fuel to come out, unless you go completely mad and then you could get some coming out of the exhaust… but then the exhaust and possibly other stuff will explode when you do finally get it started. There is no “fuel vent” under the cowling in any case. Is there such a vent with a carb?
If the engine is flooded fuel drips out of the intake, not inside the cowling, particularly if the fuel was delivered through the accelerator pump directly into the inlet tract.
I’ll have to take a look at that some time on a Marvel carb, the float bowl vent must be high enough that overfilled fuel comes out the carb jet into the inlet tract first. That would work because it’s updraft carb below the engine and the fuel won’t fill the cylinder. On a motorcycle carb flooding fuel comes out of the carb vent pipe, to which is typically attached an overflow hose running to the ground. Unless of course it’s a old motorcycle in which you might flood the float bowl intentionally with the float depressor button provided for that purpose, until you see fuel coming out the vent (no hose).
Carb engines do start easily in relation to aircraft mechanically injected engines. However excess fuel in the inlet tract can be ignited by a backfire. Oiled foam air filters can also burn, I use them but not without some reservations.
Returning to fire, was this aircraft carb or injection?
What would be the result of a high pressure fuel pipe burst?
I recall this happened to a Pa28 in the air.
It’s a (carburetted) Archer II.
