Toyota Repair: 87 Chev Nova (toyoto) engine problem, piston ring, toyoto

Question
The 4 cyl carborated engine runs rough especially at idle until it warms up .  It appears that the # 1 cyl does not fire until the engine gets to a certain temp and then it idles and runs fine. It is getting spark. This problem has been happening since the weather turned cold.  The car always starts right up so it doesn't appear to be a choke problem. Whatever the problem is it disappears when the engine reaches a certain temperature.  Thanks for your advice.  

Answer
Hello Jess, welcome to my expert page,
I would suggest doing a tune up, replace the spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor and the plug wires and the air filter, when you remove the number one spark plug look to see if it has a lot of wet oily deposits on it, this would indicate a piston ring failure. It may also be a good idea to check the engine compression on all cylinders.