Cold idling problem

[alves at email.unc.edu (Carlos Alves)]

I am having a really weird problem with my 16v. Ever since I accidently 
removed and lost the vacuum thermoswirtch to the preheat valve on the 
side of the intake boot, it has been idling really weird. Currently, 
when you start it up and the engien is cold, it sputters below 1500 
rpms, it definetley sounds as if the engine is not getting enough air, 
possibly due to the vacuum leak to the preheat valve. In fact, the 
engine sometimes even stalls at soime points. After starting it, if you 
give it gas, it hesitates, sputters, and misfires bwetween 1000 and 
1500 rpm's until you get it to about 2k, and then the engine acts fine. 
IF I let it idle (or lets call it "sputter") for about 5 minutes, the 
problem goes away. The weirder thing is that  Ihave even plugged up the 
to port on the vacuum switch, to no avail.  On a side note, I also 
noticed that the air intake tube on the bottom of the engine is 
severely cracked. Would htis affect the idle only during cold starts? 
Is it the cold start valve? Anyone have a clue?

Thanks,

Carlos