The Pressure is Off

Well, maybe...a suggestion from Jon (ex-Emerald guy) was that my issue is fuel pressure, or lack of. Two possible candidates are the HP fuel pump and the fuel pressure regulator.

Based on the fact that I can hear the HP pump and it sounds OK, I thought I'd try change the regulator first. Rather than just get a new OEM Ford job, I went for an £80 adjustable regulator, which also includes a take-off to fit a fuel pressure gauge (£20). My thinking was that, with the gauge, I can then tell what the pressure is and if it is still low, I'll know it's not the regulator.

So, bought all this and then sat there, staring at my fuel rail, thinking, "how the Hell does this go on?". The answer, eventually, is, it doesn't!!! The damn thing just has a pipe fitting but I need an adaptor to fit on the end of the Ford fuel rail. The OEM regulator has this adaptor moulded on to it (the piece with the holes in it in the pic below), so I cannot re-use that:

And does anyone do a separate adaptor for Ford? Nope. I ordered the closest thing I could find in the desperate hope it might fit but it finally arrived from China (after 3 weeks) and it doesn't fit.

So that's £100 down the drain - I've just ordered a new OEM Ford regulator; thankfully, only £25.

I'm on holiday next week when it should arrive, so I'll fit it on my return and pray this fixes my issue.