I tried to start up my '85 weekender this morning (19 degrees F in
Bozeman) and she turned over fine and ran for a bit, then kind of
bogged down and died. I repeated a few times with my foot on the gas,
trying to keep the RPMs high but the same thing happened. I've noticed
on other cold mornings (not this cold) that the van will start fine,
but I have to keep my foot on the gas petal slightly to keep RPMs up
or it will die, until it gets warmed up. Ideally, I'd like to be able
to go out, start it up and let it run unattended for 10 minutes to
warm up (while I go back inside). There is some kind of a cold-start
valve that controls idle RPMs when the engine is cold, right? Sounds
like this needs to be looked at? But that doesn't explain why the
motor dies when I am physically there with my foot on the gas.
There's also the "thermo time switch" - maybe that has something to do
with my problem? I've got a Bentley, but have yet to have time to
really get into it and understand how to use it. Any help would be
greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Jon