Vintage Cars: Mercedes 450sl Hard to start, vacuum leaks, fuel rails

Question
Hello Ron
I have 1978 Mercedes 450sl, I have hard time starting the car everyday. I also smell fuel can you please help? Thank you

Answer
Silvestre,

the smell of fuel and hard starts may indicate several issues
you may have a leak at one or several of your connections of your fuel injectors or on the fuel rails.  If you are sucking in air this will cause a hard cold start.  Take off air cleaner and look for wet areas, locate leak ,if present, immediately fix as this car has a known fire hazard from leaking fuel rails

You may also have worn and leaking injectors, how many miles on the injectors.  They can be refurbished

Vacuum leaks , look for any rubber connections with broken lines or cracked lines

There are other issues but lets start there, rule out the obvious.  If you do not have a leak , the injectors are the most likely culprit
Good Luck
Ron