OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Briggs & Stratton Engines Briggs and Stratton 14.5 OHV motor

A mate dropped of his Yardman rideon this morning saying it wasn't running properly and was smoking, nothing unusual with this it is a Briggs.
I fired it up with the air cleaner off and it ran for a few seconds and then it squirted fuel maybe 3/400mm into the air out of the hole in the air cleaner base as indicated by the arrow in the picture. Anybody have an thoughts on the cause of this, my assumption is a problem with the inlet valve allowing compression to leak back into the inlet manifold. Any other thoughts?