Land Rover Repair: starting, electric fuel pumps, luck john

Question
do 97 Disc. have a fuel check valve, turns over but will not start till step on fuel petal a few times,also when slowing down, surges from 1200to1500.

Answer
Cars like these have powerful electric fuel pumps.  In terms of fuel delivery from the tank, pumping the gas is irrelevant.  

It does sound like something is up.  What I would do is look at the live data stream on the T4 diagnostic system.  That's the best tool to evaluate troubles like this because it highlights any abnormal readings while showing all the data on one screen.

My best advice would be to look for a properly equipped shop, one with T4, IDS, Autologic and trained technicians

Good luck

John Elder Robison

Check out my car blog at http://robisonservice.com and find me on Facebook, too.  I'm @johnrobison on Twitter