The Manchester 737 was a -200 with JT8D’s. All 737 dash numbers beyond 200 had CFM56s. Originally, the reverser buckets on the -200s had horizontal hinges, the flow from the buckets going vertically, and forward. In service problems were found with the lower bucket lifting runway debris ahead of the engine intake.
Boeing swung the hinge lines 45 degrees with, aircraft viewed from the front, upper buckets, going 45 degrees inward towards the fuselage.
You can see the effect of this on -200s with the soot marks on the cabin walls.
I thought then, and still think, that the 737 cabin fire and fatalities at Manchester were caused by a mod which should never has been approved. Had the buckets been swung the other way then the upper buckets would have exhausted outwards from the aircraft, the lower buckets hitting the tarmac.
The chosen route meant that, inevitably, an engine failure of the type seen at Manchester, admittedly rare, would fry the cabin in seconds.
The enquiry said the ‘wind blew the fire against the fuselage’. I think not. There was a gentle breeze that day which added practically nothing to the flaming exhaust of a knackered JT8.