Won't start on first try

[sonik]

If I try to start the truck cold it's now always failing on the first try. It cranks fine but just isn't firing. On the second try it starts right up with no hesitation. This problem has been slowing creeping up on me, it's gone from happening every month to every week to every time. If I go into a store or something and come back it starts right up.

I'm thinking it's not getting enough fuel on the first try? When turning the key I always wait a couple seconds for the fuel pump to prime, but i have no idea what the condition of the pump is like. The fuel filter was replaced about a year ago, so only about 4k miles on it. Original fuel injectors I assume. I ran some Sea Foam through the gas tank a month ago (and crankcase and intake manifold) so maybe they were cleaned a bit. The battery looks ancient, I just cleaned the terminals off, got them nice and shiny. But I'm not sure that would be the problem since it fires right up the second try.

The truck's just shy of 100k. Anyone know what I should be looking at? This is one of those problems that I'd like to take care of before it gets to the point where I'm spending 10 mins every morning trying to get the damn thing started.

 

[MrShorty]

I would agree that it's not getting enough fuel on the first try. Try cycling the key on and off 3-4 times before the first attempt to start it and see if that helps. You might also put a fuel pressure gauge on the fuel rail and see how quickly the fuel pressure falls off.

 

[TPLYNCH]

The check valve in the fuel pump may be going. Turning the key on/off, on/off, on/off before going all the way to start as described above is one way of diagnosing if this is the case.

 

[Rockey]

When I saw the subject I wondered if you had the Apten chip. Then I saw your signature. I noticed my engine was harder to start after putting the Apten chip in. From my experience the advanced timing makes it harder to start. I was going to go back to Apten and ask them to take some timing out. in the lower rpms to make it easier to start. You may want to give them a call.

 

[sonik]

I don't think the chip is causing the trouble, I've had it for a year and this is a pretty recent problem.

I have a fuel pressure gauge and it seems to be losing all pressure after about 6 hours after shutdown. Is this not normal, should the pressure stay high? The psi is 30-32 idle and jumps up to about 38 when I turn off the engine.

Is a faulty fuel pump the only thing I should be looking at, or could it be the fuel pressure regulator?

 

[RiverRat]

The check valve in the fuel pump may be going. Turning the key on/off, on/off, on/off before going all the way to start as described above is one way of diagnosing if this is the case.

Sounds like the pump unless the fuel is going into the cylinders due to a bad injector. Check for fuel on the vac side of the regulator. There shouldn't be any.