Since the purchase of my new second hand Adams 42 the Perkins Prima has taken about 10 to 15 reveorlusions to start when cold.
When warm she would start strait away.. In turn this would flatten my battery's a bit and I believe wore out the starter motor which I have now replaced.
last week as some may have read my post on fuel filters I replaced my filters along with a couple of bleeding seals and washes. After some dramas replacing the filters and bleeding the Mains up again she now starts first ping cold or hot anytime.
Half a turn off the key and she's away not even using the glow plugs.
I read the same problem with another international yachie female and spoke with her about the fix. I had my doubts!
So hopefully this can be some use to you guys if the same problem exists.
Regards
Southace & Trim
Thanks Southace, I don't have a starting problem (yet) but it good to hear about these solved problems so when they do occur, I've got another thing to try
Cheers 
Good bit of experience to share. Thanks.
What do you think the problem might have been? Do you think it was sucking some air?
perhaps the washers allowed a small amount of air into the system and for the motor to start the it had to self bleed the air before she fired .
Remembering going from some thing that's hot to cold creates a vacuum.
Much the same as a boat trailer going to a boat ramp after the drive there the cold water and the hot trailer wheel hub create a low pressure area inside the hub and it then tries to suck water into the hub.
Well that's what I get out of it South Ace 
Select to expand quoteMorningBird said..
Good bit of experience to share. Thanks.
What do you think the problem might have been? Do you think it was sucking some air?
My thoughts are because my fuel tank is way down deep in the bilge the fuel in the line was draining back into the tank overnight due to a leaking seal in a bleeding screw.
Basically the Main has been self bleeding every cold start up.
I had the opposite problem to SA.
My motor started first time every time and had done so for 8 years until I changed the CAV fuel filter last year. It then became hard to start and after about a month of use it stopped after running for two minutes, luckily I was still on my berth when it stopped.
It would restart but again stop after a minute or two.
I replaced all the O rings & seals on the filter thinking I didn't fit the filter correctly and it was sucking air, no joy.
I was in the process of changing the hole filter assembly when I noticed a 90 degree compression fitting on the fuel line coming from the tank appeared loose.
Of course it was the hardest fitting to reach, but once I managed to tighten it and bleed the system the motor was back to starting and running as it done before.
Fuel lines must be air tight.
Select to expand quotesouthace said..MorningBird said..
Good bit of experience to share. Thanks.
What do you think the problem might have been? Do you think it was sucking some air?
My thoughts are because my fuel tank is way down deep in the bilge the fuel in the line was draining back into the tank overnight due to a leaking seal in a bleeding screw.
Basically the Main has been self bleeding every cold start up.
Amazing how a 10c part, the bleed/vent screw, can cause so much trouble!
I had related problem. The bleed screw washer got deformed from over tightening (I think) and the air seal was compromised, so my engine started sucking air through the screw! Every few hours of running the engine would stall, and I found myself bleeding air out so frequently that eventually the screw itself lost half its thread and was useless. Replacing the screw and washer solved the problem.
