Symptom: From a cold start, start the car and let it run for a few minutes, not enough to get warm. Then, shut it down.

Upon the very next attempt to start it, hours or days later but basically a cold start all over again, it cranks fine but complains a lot and doesn't want to keep running. Exhaust smells like unburned fuel. Cranking through all the stumbling, for a good fifteen to twenty seconds, it eventually settles into a rough idle which smooths out after a few seconds. Everything else is fine.

The usual circumstance that leads up to this is after I move it in or out of the garage for some reason.

This is very repeatable and has been happening for years. I've changed my behavior to never start the car unless I expect to let it run long enough so that the temperature gauge indicates something (drive it or just let it idle for fifteen minutes or so). It's not that much of a problem, I just live with it, but if someone else ever borrows the car he won't know what's going on.

This is not wet wires, it happens in all kinds of weather any time of the year and happened before I changed the wires and distributor as well. It's always been in a climate-controlled, dry garage. It's strictly related to running the engine briefly and not long enough for it to get warm.

Any ideas?

 

Any at all?