Your empty fuel filter I would guess is probably your problem, not sure on these but if there is a primary pump in your tank then it may be worth having a look in there for any debris/dirt blocking the pick up filter, you can usually hear the pump running also when the ignition is on,have had one motor before that did this and it was the actual pump on the way out,just intermittent bad starting, a replacement cured the fault. Good luck.
cdc
September 2017