Fuel Pressure Question

[vettestr]

I spoke to Dave yesterday, he does not have easy internet connection so is a little hit n miss. He is driving to a location to check his email and going back to home base to ingest the messages. BTW... his cold start problems are @ 65 to 70 degrees burrrrrrrrr !!!

Engine is getting hard to start after sitting overnight or first time but seems to RE-start if up to temp without issues. He is using the car as his main transportation and towing it behind the motor-home so can't take his house to grab dinner etc..

Ford Guru's help needed here. This is a STOCK-ish early 80's injected 302 engine in a Cobra. He is running a typical donor/stock set up. Very limited diagnostics have been done but here some hints to his problem. Engine cranks over but does not start easy if it sat or not up to temp already. Thinks it is fuel related (lack of) on cold start up. When it does start no black smoke or signs it was flooded. No smell of fuel after shut down from dripping injectors (like he had on another engine once before) Does have a pressure gauge mounted under hood .... it shows 40 PSI when running. He hears pump run on key activation but seems to time out after about 4 or 5 seconds without cranking engine and takes a few seconds to build to 40 PSI with key activation. Gauge is found at zero on cold start up or drops to zero after time out or as soon as running engine is shut off?

I told him .... I think pump time out is normal without cranking the engine. I don't know if pressure should drop to zero when shut down or if it should keep system pressurized at least for a reasonable time after shut down??? I suspect temp sensors ---- not adding fuel for cold start up or something ECM related between cold temp and operating temp as it starts easily if up to temp already?????? What do the Ford Gods say??