Toyota Repair: 4Runner excessive cranking & gas odor, cold start, yahoo ca

Question
1994 4Runner needs excessive cranking (about 4 seconds) to start up even hours after its been warmed up (but rarely first thing in the morning) and smells of gas after the long crank, which I suspect is from the exhaust. It happened after it suddenly stumbled and stalled during idle for the first time ever in cold northern Alberta. Before that it would spark up instantly upon cranking. I haven't found anyone at a dozen Toyota shops that can help. Any experience with this? Very grateful for your assistance!  ralphhrey@yahoo.ca

Answer
A couple of possible causes, the cold start injector may be leaking or staying on too long, a more common cause is that the cold start injector time switch could be the cause, it's located at the rear of the engine in the middle,just behind the intake manifold near the firewall, if you get the new one first you will be able to identify it, try replacing it first.