Most people come on here looking for help to fix problems.
I thought it might be useful for anyone, to know about this one fix for a hard start, thats often not considered.

My 98 24valve truck had a hard or long start issue, specially when it sat for a while.
In my case it where the rubber O-rings around the connector tubes. Since these orings seal the return line (in the head) from the atmosphere, if only one is bad, itll suck air in an loose prime, and causing a hard start. i know of at least 3 trucks that have had that issue in my town the last couple of months.

Another problem is too high fuel pressure. My truck didnt like 19 psi, it had to be dropped to around 16 psi so it would crank right up.

In cold wheather, make sure your grid heaters are connected and working. they help big time.

Another problem is a bad VP44, but that one will more then likely start hard when the engine is warm