Thanks for the thoughts all. My indy shares David's opinion about the accumulator, and I lean toward Kent's injector theory. I have trouble picturing the logic of the accumulator/check valve solution, since the longer the car sits idle and the more time that passes for the fuel system to depressurize, the easier the motor starts. Seems totally counterintuitive.

But I'm also not totally persuaded about leaking injectors either, because there is no noticeable difference between hot and cold starts when the car is driven daily. Both require longer cranking than when the motor hasn't been started for several days. As Kent says, hot starts should be harder than cold starts with leaking injectors, and I'm not really experiencing that.

Would fuel pressure/volume test be the proper diagnostic test for both accumulator and injectors, or is it something else?

__________________
1988 California version 260E (W124)
Anthracite Grey/Palomino
Owned since new and still going strong and smooth
MBCA member

Past Mercedes-Benz:
1986 190E Baby Benz
1967 230 Inherited from mom when she downsized
1959 220S Introduced me to the joys of keepin' 'em goin'

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world--those who understand binary and those who don't