Who likes a mystery ! My 3.9 is driving me crazy ! Any experts who can help pls ?

Hi. I have a Rover 3.9 engine in a classic Range Rover.

99% of the time it runs perfect , super smooth, engines strong and starts first time, runs well hot and cold. Every key off restart is fine and I have No other issues until I stumbled across a problem which is driving me crazy….. and is repeatable .

A friend of mine drove it and as they weren’t use to the bite point (it’s a manual) they stalled it trying to drive off and after that stall it simply would not restart.


If we leave it for a while it does restart (30-40 mins plus)

I can recreate the issue and it doesn’t matter if the engines hot or cold.

It’s as if the car knows it’s stalled and is doing something to prevent a restart. I’ve confirmed a strong spark , crank is strong and can smell the fuel whilst it tries to crank. I’m stumped ! Please help me 😊 . Btw. I tried a disconnecting the 12v to try to reset the pcm but that had no impact

 

Maybe flooded with gas?