Hard Starting Issue / Fuel Rail Schrader Valve question

[photousa]

I'm have an extended crank / hard start issue I'm trying to solve. I figure I'm losing fuel pressure from somewhere because the car needs
to crank a couple of times before it finally stumbles and fires up. I have not yet put a fuel pressure gauge on the rail, because I don't have
access to one, so I thought my next move might as well be to replace the schrader valve in the fuel rail test port / valve, since they are known to leak pressure. The valve on the
fuel rail is larger in size that the one with your tire, valve stems, so I'm wondering what size of Schrader valve to purchase for it? eEuroparts
sells two different schrader valves for the A/C system, but no Schrader valve for the fuel rail valve.
I have read in one posting that the Fuel Rail Valve uses the same size schrader as the tire stem valve, but wanted to verify with someone.

Here's what I've done recently to the car, but no improvement yet with extended crank:

New Supply (white) check valve
Recent fuel pump motor, (last year)
new head gasket, intake and exhaust gasket, new valve seals, ect.
new fuel injector service kits on each fuel injector ( O rings, pintle cap, strainer / basket)
recent fuel filter
2 year old dic
2 year old plugs / cleaned plugs with emory cloth and brake cleaner before installing with new head gasket and cylinder head work..
approx 2 year old air filter, cabin filter
brand new battery
new alternator
new water pump
new coolant expansion tank with flush out...
99% of vacuum line replaced with silicone, the only One I left untouched was buried near the firewall...
pcv to throttle body check valve line replaced with oem rubber line..

cleaned MAF
New turbo Wastegate valve
cleaned throttle body completely after taking it off..
Updated to PCV #6

Things I haven't checked:
original temp sensor, (temp gauge on dash reads fine)
fuel pressure regulator
Old, original O2 sensors (132k miles)
Original MAF (132K miles)
original IAC sensor, never cleaned, my me..

Car runs really smooth once started....

[toxicavenger]

heck if it was me I would pull the lugs and see what they look like and give them a cleaning.

also some times this can be common in winter time. put techron injector in each fill up and see what happens.

[photousa]

heck if it was me I would pull the lugs and see what they look like and give them a cleaning.

also some times this can be common in winter time. put techron injector in each fill up and see what happens.

Thanks Terry, My plugs didn't look too bad, I cleaned the electrodes with emory cloth and tried to wash them off with brake cleaner before re-inserting them...
Maybe I just need new ones? I also just put in a bottle of "Heat" suspecting watery gas and also dumped in a bottle of "Amsoil Performance Improve" which seemed
to help smooth out my idling and cleaned up the slight "missing" I was having..

[toxicavenger]

sounds like you cover most of your basses! good job.

so go ahead and dump those spark plugs and pick up some of the techron and see how it goes after a few tanks.

so is your car doing good other wise?

[Brad Lauzze]

Since its on the 'pending' list, I'd definitely scope out the fuel pressure regulator. I've seen a few where the diaphragm inside of them goes bad and pressure will bleed down giving you an extended crank scenario.

[photousa]

Since its on the 'pending' list, I'd definitely scope out the fuel pressure regulator. I've seen a few where the diaphragm inside of them goes bad and pressure will bleed down giving you an extended crank scenario.

Thanks Brad, Is there any way to test for a bad fuel pressure regulator? I was also planning on installing a new schrader valve in the fuel rail test valve, have you ever done that one? I'm wondering what size schrader valve to buy?

[Brad Lauzze]

I never really had a good way of testing them, just swap them out for a known good one and see if it helps. It would be good to at least throw a pressure gauge on and give us some numbers to work with though.

[Rajiv]

Thanks Brad, Is there any way to test for a bad fuel pressure regulator? I was also planning on installing a new schrader valve in the fuel rail test valve, have you ever done that one? I'm wondering what size schrader valve to buy?

One way to test for it that I was told of is to keep track of your hard starting issues. if when your tank if full, your car has less or no trouble starting but gradually starts to get worse as tank nears empty then there is a fair chance that loss of fuel pressure is culprit.

[photousa]

Thanks everyone, I'll have to find myself a fuel pressure gauge & pay attention to what the car is doing with a full tank.
I think a fuel pressure regulator may be on my Christmas list....

[photousa]

sounds like you cover most of your basses! good job.

so go ahead and dump those spark plugs and pick up some of the techron and see how it goes after a few tanks.

so is your car doing good other wise?

Thanks Terry, great advice. Once the car gets through its hard morning start, it's good the rest of the day and
runs really smooth. Aside from really lousy gas mileage, everything's ok.

I think I read somewhere that a sticking fuel pressure regulator can dump fuel into your intake manifold causing
a "flood" situation, I wonder if that's part of my bad gas mileage problem?