97 Lincoln Town Car: Hard start when cold (30F)

[C0RR0SIVE]

Ok, I have been trying to solve this problem for two years now...
Car: 97 Lincoln Town Car 4.6l V8 (Twin coil packs, not coil on plug)
Issue: When it's cold, usually well below 50F the engine will crank, and fire up, but VERY quickly die, after playing with the gas peddle for awhile, and a lot of gas fumes and smoke later it will start to idle, but at a very low idle, till it has ran a good while. After this, it starts and runs perfectly fine through out the day, till it sits over night, in the cold. I have so far checked (and replaced) the MAF, I have checked the crank PS, cam PS, TPS, ICM, coil packs, IAC, plugs, fuel pressure, and everything looks GOOD.

I have also checked for vac leaks that can occur when cold. It is very difficult checking for this though, as after a little bit the car wants to start up just fine....

Anyone have any ideas, or have heard of this? Car is not throwing any CEL....

I also have good compression on all cylinders, one thing is, the car only gets 14mpg when this is going on, far from the normal mid 20's it was getting....

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Update:

Ok, fixed the idle issue, apparently the IAC was WORKING, just not working good enough.

But, now there is a brand new issue.... Alternator is refusing to charge the battery, took the original one into autozone, they couldn't test it, so I said what the hell, give me a new remanufactured one, had them test it prior to handing it to me, it passed (though I have had alts boil batteries over before that "passed"), put it on the car, still no charging. I have a wiring schematic, it shows only the 12v feed, and two wires in a pigtail connector, BUT, on the car there are 3 wires in one connector, then another that appears to be some sort of ground cable... Anyone have any ideas? I know I can't be the only gear head on here....

Any of you mustang guys with the 4.6l v8 have an idea? I know the alts are very similar between the two cars...