Having an issue with my 2007 Ranger, 4.0l sohc. It’s a v6, fuel injected.

If I go to start it in the morning after it’s sat a long time it starts pretty normally after about a second of cranking. Also, if it is up to temp and I shut it down for just a minute or two, it starts right back up.

If I drive somewhere and get it up to temp then leave it for an hour or two it has to crank a long time before starting, maybe 5 seconds or longer. The cranking speed is normal.

In either case once it has started up, it runs totally normally.

I put a fuel pressure gauge on it and when I turn the key to run but without starting the engine, it goes to about 60psi then drops off to zero within seconds.

With the engine running it stays pretty close to 60psi.

I would consider the fuel pump return valve, but it’s confusing that it starts fine in the morning when it should be at the minimum pressure.

I’m not sure what the next steps are. I’ve read that it could be a leaking injector flooding the engine, could that be a possibility? Is there some way to figure out which injector is leaking? I didn’t think that having one flooded cylinder would be enough to stop the whole engine from starting.

One other thing, I recently replaced the fuel filter but I don’t see any leaks around the inlets or outlets. At first I assumed I just got a defective filter so I changed it again. First replacement was a Bosch second replacement was a Napa gold (Wix).

I notice that the fuel filter has 2 inlets that are fed from the tank and one outlet that goes to the fuel rail. What is the purpose of the 2 inlets? As far as I can tell from the old filter, there is no valve in the filter body (I could be wrong)

Any suggestions for diagnostics I can do to track it down before just blindly throwing parts at it?

Thank you!!!