First off, it's an '85 305 T/A. The motor has been rebuilt, but I'm not sure what's in it since I just bought it. The car runs fine and starts normally when cold, but when it's hot, you can crank it for 5-10 seconds before it sounds like it's trying to fire, and even then, it doesn't really start. It does occasionally smoke when started up, but that's from the valve seals and shouldn't be causing this problem.

What I've been doing is turning the starter for 2-3 seconds then let it sit for 5 seconds or so, then turn it over again and it will fire up. I'm thinking there is something that needs to be tripped when first cranking it over when hot, in order to be able to start it the second time.

Any ideas?

 

Your problem more than likely is coming from the check valve in the fuel pump. This valve allows the fuel pressure to drop at a certain rate over a certain period of time. If it is not operating properly, the fuel in the fuel rail will boil causing your hot starting problem. When you activate the fuel pump by turning the key over 2 to 5 times, the pressure supplied by the fuel pump effectively stops the fuel from boiling thus on the 4th or 5th try the car fires up. My 87 350 L98 has the same problem. I am waiting for the fuel pump to die so I can replace it, since it's such a pain to do. I figure I can live with the problem right now. Hope this helped.

 

That makes more sense to me than anything else I've come up with (which is nothing.) Thanks.