3208 Cat loses fuel prime over winter

[FWHaas3]

I have an 82 Bertram 31 with original 3208 Cats, which I have owned for 18 years. Every spring except for the last 2, the engines have started up as soon as I pushed the start button. The past two years, I have had to bleed the injectors to restore the prime and get the starboard engine to start. Thereafter during the season I have no trouble starting the starboard engine.
There is no visible fuel leak, so I assume I am losing air over the winter on the pressure side of the system. Is the fuel primer pump a likely suspect to cause this problem?
I have already done a fair amount of research, and thought I would also reach out to the faithful.
Appreciate any thoughts.

Fred

[Carl]

A friend of mine has same motors and has a problem starting one of them after a long period of not running. It was traced down to most likely a .20 o-ring on the I believe throttle shaft or plate. All I know for sure is that he gets a small drip of fuel from that area. Only being a .02 is the good news, the bad news is a large portion on the motors needs to come off to access that little o-ring.
At least his engine bay is tight and the parts of those motors are nice and heavy, 32 Blackfin. He's had the o-ring for several years now and he works around it by fishing just about every day.

[Tony Meola]

Fred

It has been a while. I hope all is well.

Make sure the fuel filters are sealing well. Could be the Racors if the gasket is not seating right. If you cant find the problem, I would probably just shut off the fuel valve at the tank so it can not drain back.

I actually had a secondary filter go bad on me. It sprung a leak on one the seams at the top of the canister and was spraying fuel all over the place.

I would also check all the places that the fuel line has a fitting. I am sure you have, but a loose fitting could cause a problem also.

Bruce probably would know other areas on the 3208's that would cause a problem.

[Joef]

I have 320hp 3208ts in my 31 north coast. Exact same issue. Traced to a seal between a he injection pump and the lift pump... kinda expensive to repair but since then no issues at all. Cat mechanic seems to think it’s fairly common and didn’t have all that much trouble figuring it out