long cranking and hard to start in cold weather

hey guys ...
now since it dipped into the -18c down here...
car has an extremely hard time to start and then it idles all over the place... i mean its hunting for idle anywhere between 1100 to 2200 rpm's... and to make things worse, previous jack ass ... errr... i mean owner has stripped all the honeycombs out of the MAF... my finger is pointed at that ... but i figgured i put it up and see if you guys had come across anything like this in the past. anything below -10 seems to be a lil bit of a chore for the car to start. any ideas????
BTW ... no DTC have been set!
 

What kind of car do you have?  Does the idle level out after it warms up?  Check what kind of fuel pressure you have when your cranking.

sorry ...
my sig should have popped up.
 
97 Eclipse GST.
4G63T - 5Spd california Emmisions

Do u have any mods?  Does the idle get better when it warms up? 

nope, but today i was messing around at work and noticed that when i unplugged the maf the car smoothed out and ran like butter :)
idle stabilized at 900Rpm's and she ran great.
 
i think think that the maf is f-ed,  but then again ... its missing the honey combs out of it.
the last owner had hollowed out the maf.
going with the GM maf and translator soon.

Oh yeah I forgot you have a 2gen, yeah that sounds like your problem there.  You can pick up a 2gen mas pretty cheap, around $50.00 on ebay just to get it running normal.