I had the same problem with my '84 GL.

On mine, it turned out to be a bad fuel pressure regulator.

Seems that it was allowing too much pressure and holding this excess pressure after shutoff was causing the injectors to leak fuel
into the combustion chambers .... thus flooding.

If I shut it off and restarted it right away ... no problem.  But if I ran a short errand and tried to restart .... forget it ....
for one to two hours, anyway.

A new fuel pressure regulator solved my problem.

Don't know if this will help you.

Good luck,

Mike

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Watts" <alan@16COLOR.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 11:39 AM
Subject: Why do I smell gas?

> Hi folks,
>
> My hot start problem is out of control!  It used to be that it would
> only not start some of the time, now it's all of the time - so on my
> trip home from New Mexico, I couldn't turn off the engine to refuel
> during the entire 10 hours.  I've replaced the fuel pump and checked
> all the electric stuffs.  When I crank it, I smell gas and if I
> "slowly press the accelerator" (as it says in the manual), I get a
> nice blast of gas fumes - could my injectors be leaking and flooding
> the engine?  It takes about 30 minutes of sitting around before it
> starts again - which is nice because it's just enough time to make
> some tea and play a few games of solitaire - but this is getting a
> little frustrating.
>
> Thanks!
> Alan