I recently inherited a 1987 E350 (460 V8) van. Big motor...

I'm having problems with the fuel injection. It seems to only pump gas to the carburetor while turning over the starter after it starts. But if you stop turning it over, it no longer pumps gas to the carb.

Can anyone help diagnose this? Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

does this have a carb or fuel rail?

 

Carb.

I'm not sure what a fuel rail is.

 

A picture might help. I thought '87 was injected (not carbureted)? So to eliminate confusion a picture or two of the intake would help. With Multi-port injection the fuel is fed straight to the injectors from the fuel line to the fuel rail (metal fuel line (square or round tube) that bolts over the injectors and also serves to hold them in place). Air throttling is used to take air through the air intake and each time an intake valve opens air pulls in while the injector fires in the proper fuel under pressure right near the intake manifolds cylinder head intake port flange. With a carb. - it sits on top of the intake using gravity rather than pressure to pull in air/fuel mix (which means the intake is an air/fuel intake all through - unlike the injection intake which if cracked in the right spot won't dump fuel). Ford also used the weird VV Variable Venturi carb (which is basically a modified carburetor), but I'm not recalling if they had throttle body injection (where injectors are mounted in the carb venturis). Basically if your fuel line feed goes into thin rail you're injected, but if it goes into a squareish boxy looking thing you're likely not.