I had that happening for quite awhile on my 87 Wolfsburg .
Similar to your situation anyway ..
would fire off........but barely idle, and quit running easily, for the
first 5 minutes of running.

I had several Idle Valves to play with, and about 5   Control Units for the
idle valve ..
trying various ones of those ..
plus fixing intake leaks.........I finally got it fixed.
  that's where I'd go right now ..
try another Control Unit for the Idle Valve ..and check very carefully for
intake leaks.
I have found up to 8 tiny air intake leaks on the whole intake
plenum/throttle body/intake runners system.

Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "greentabe-vanagon@yahoo.com" <greentabe-vanagon@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 10:18 PM
Subject: Hard starting when cold 2.1 WBX

It's easier to post than go outside and actually work on this -- it's
expected to get close to freezing tonight! (I know, some of you are laughing
at me) I haven't fully finished troubleshooting, but here goes anyway:

My relatively new-to-me stock 2.1 has trouble starting when cold but runs
fine when warmed up. I usually crank for 5-10 seconds, stop, and do it
again. I might have to do this 3 or 4 times before it actually starts. When
it does eventually start, it runs sort of OK for a few seconds, then slowly
starts to miss more and more until it conks out. Rinse and repeat. I'm
pretty familiar with how the Digifant FI is supposed to work and have
checked the temperature 2 sensor and idle control systems, which appear to
operate normally. Idle switch clicks but I haven't checked for continuity
yet. So what I see is that the FI gives an extra squirt of fuel for a bit,
which eventually allows the engine to start once enough unburnt fuel is
present, and as that fuel burns off and the FI leans the mixture, the engine
dies. Adding some quick start helps.

Once warmed for a minute or so, the engine runs fine at idle but dies under
throttle until fully warm.

Suggestions? How come the FI is not enriching the mixture enough? Something
else going on?

tabe johnson_90MV