bad starting/cold running

hello my cousin has a 1983 1.8 golf gti that i do the servicing repairs etc on as he isnt the most mechanicly minded and im strugling.

the car takes ages to start (agood 20-40 seconds of cranking) and when it does start it will fire and run for less that 10 seconds then cut out, it will do the same 4/5 times before it will start and continue running but it will only contine to run if you give it a good rev for 10-15 seconds then after that it will tick over 1000ish rpm and run well,
ive check the cold start thing on the end of the manifold, if its unpluged it will not start at all.
ive check the vacum pipes and replaced one which had gone brittle this didnt really help either.
 when ive take the air valve block thing (dont know the proper name) on the top of the airbox inside of it is very oilly drity and black, will this be causing a problem?
and lastly what should the ignition timing be set to with a timing gun?

thanks rob

The breather your talking about being covered in oil might be causing your problems. As it sounds like your car isn't getting enough hot air recycled in to the air box, (if the cold start system is working that is).

Try cleaning up the mesh that should stop excess oil from going in to the air box see if that helps?

wont be anythign to do with the breather, but clean out the air flap though it can only help.

its more likely to be the warm up regulator or you have an air leak somewhere which is leaning out the mixture