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Run the blower
Always running the blower before starting is a good safely procedure, but the safest procedure has to be to stick your nose in the engine compartment. If gas fumes are present, you'll notice immediately and you will want to resolve the source of the fumes before even considering starting the engine. If you have a gas leak, even running the blower for 5 minutes may not be enough, and even if it is, gas fumes may collect again while the engine is running with a predictable result........kaboom!! I also had a stuck needle valve with resulting pints of gasoline in the bilge, luckily my nose caught it before starting the engine, even 10 minutes of blowing would not have cleared this volume of gasoline. Another idea is to install a gas detector in the engine compartment and maybe even a heat activated halon fire extinguisher (normal engine heat won't activate it).
Bob
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