I have a 91 RS. It is a bone stock LO3 besides open element conversion and has 200,000 miles on it. The car runs great and has never gave me much of a problem until recently. When I go to crank it in the morning it will run for like a split second and then die, and then after about three trys of turning it over it will run but badly and eventually clear up in about 10 seconds. It is about 30 to 40 degrees in the morning here right now.

 

isn't there a like...umm..air heater thing, basically it pulls air from around the manifolds when it is cold out so it get warm air to start with. i don't know how fast the manifolds heat up but if you have that open element that would have by passed it....i dunno i am a TPI man.

 

i think (not 100% sure) that our cars wait for oil pressure to register before they allow the ignition to spark... this (i think) is to keep wear and tear after startup way down. i know my tbi stock setup takes like 3 seconds before it fires in the morning.

 

20 degrees in the mornings here and my carb starts no problem...

Last winter when I had my lo3 with TBI there was a few morning when it wouldnt start...we are talking in the single digits tho...30-40 degrees I never had a problem. I had the open element to.