Trouble starting my 2.4L 2001 Tacoma after cold shutdown

There are a lot of "hard start" threads here already, but my situation is a bit particular. My 2001 Tacoma has been a trooper since I bought it second-hand in 2005. Has almost 200k on it and rarely has a problem. I checked valve clearances yesterday (no problems) and started it up just to make sure I reconnected all hoses and wires. Only ran for a few seconds. This morning, no start. Just turns over and over and over. I recall this happening a couple years ago after starting it up just to back out of the garage for a wash. After the wash, no start.

Both times I was able to get it to start by opening the throttle all the way and cranking for a while longer. Eventually it starts to fire a little and finally starts up with a big puff of blue-white smoke.

Anyone else see this sort of behavior? I suspect the key to the problem is the cold shutdown. Never happens otherwise.

 

Well when the engine is cold, additional fuel is delivered, like the old days of pulling out the choke on old cars.

What could be happening is that when you shut it down during a cold start is that excessive unspent fuel is left in the intake and cylinders. Then next time you try to start it the ECU delivers extra fuel, as normal, but that combined with the left over fuel is too rich to start.

So when you hold open the throttle plate it allows extra air in as you crank longer and would result in a 'put-put-put' stuttering type of start and smoke when if first fires off.

2 things though:
Usually fuel will produce a darker grey smoke if it is really rich and blue smoke almost always means oil.

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Actually now that I think about it more: what MIGHT be happening is that the engine is cold, so things haven't heated up and seated as well, especially on higher mileage vehicles. You could have some oil weeping past the valve seals, the engines had enough time to pump the oil up there obviously but not enough time to warm up and seal up. Shutting it down early doesn't let this warm up and burn off obviously and the colder 'tolerances' could allow oil to settle in the cylinder making it harder to start next time.