I did the head gaskets a couple summers ago on my wifes Discovery II and ever since its been intermittentantly hard to start (it takes probably 5 seconds of cranking to start). After the initial start it will fire right up untill it sits a while then its hard to start again.
I should say that most of the time its hard to start after it sits. Theres no rhyme or reason to when it is going to be hard to start and sometimes it starts right up. When it is hard to start it has a very strong fuel smell after it is finally running so it seems like its not a fuel problem, but then again what do I know?
Around the tailpipe it is very black and I just got new O2 sensors, so I hope that helps.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

 

Betting you have a CEL lit.
Betting you have codes pending.
What are the error codes?

 

Thats the strange thing, no codes. I have had a P0441 and changed out the Purge Valve and that went away. Other than that nothing else and nothing pending according to the reader that I have.

 

Fuel pump is most likely starting to fail.

 

Mike-
So would you put a new fuel pump in, or check pressure first?
I guess I could get the guage on the rail (yuck) and see what the pressure loss is overnight.
What should I be seeing as far as fuel pressures? Its strange that its intermittent and started right after the head gasket job.

One other think you can hear it want to start, then doesn't catch cranks for another second and ignition!!

Thanks for the help

 

So, for those times when you think it will be hard to start, turn the key, 3 times to the start position, #2 and back off, then try and start it and see if there is a difference.

 

OK I'll try that, thanks.

 

Mike
I tried the ignition, didn't seem to make a difference. I put the fuel pressure guage on the schraeder valve. I'm getting 46psi. After shutdown it leaks down pretty quickly to 40 psi, then a slow trickle down to nothing (2 hours). Also when I did the heads I couldn't get the 8mm wires and replaced my existing with 6mm wires. Do you think that could be making a difference?

 

I'm thinking it's not fuel pump, due to it holding pressure well enough (though others might say its not) the the smell of fuel. And the key trick not working. I'm
Thinking more electrical, like a coil pack. Simply not sparking the first few times it's told to

 

I'm having this same problem, exactly the same, did you ever figure the root cause of your problem?