How to diagnose and repair a Loyale cold start problem?

also check your compression both cold and warm, if there's a big difference it could be that your cylinder rings or cylinder walls are worn just to the point that when cold they don't seal well but seal fine once they've warmed a bit.

I think that's normal, I've got a 92 Loyale here in Canada, In winter it gets down to -40 here, The trick is when you start cranking pump the gas peddle half way a few times as needed to assist the fuel flow, should do the trick. My car loves to rev close to 3000 rpm in those temps. Also let it warm up for a while too, these engines need to be almost at op temp to run smooth. I can cycle through gears when it's cold but it will hesitate in acceleration and some times stall in first, so just give it time to warm up.