^what he said, check the coolant level if its low. also does exhaust smell sweet or blows white smoke on cold start-up?
checked again for any (pending) codes? im running out of ideas. I imagine the N/A motors still has vacuum lines correct? could check and see if theres a small leak somewhere.

 

Coolant is full and was changed 6/18/2019 by my local shop using Dex Cool. I've only put 7,000 miles on the car since, so the coolant is good.And there are no codes.

 

A bad rad cap can cause problems

 

I'll be happy to replace it. Can you please explain how that would affect starting? I like to learn and this seems strange to me

 

If the rad cap is leaking pressure, then the coolant is low, the air in the system causes trapped air in the head, the computers go wonky if this happens, sensors don’t like what they are sensing, that causes the fuel and air mixture to be changed during cold start, very strange .

 

Wow, that is strange. Even though the coolant level i fine, would you recommend a new cap?

 

No , unless it is not holding pressure

 

OK. Anything else you can think of that I could check before having to take it to a shop? Even then, what would they check?

 

when you cleaned the MAF and throttlebody were there oil residue in the intake at all and if so how much was there? I don't think checking the PCV was brought up yet...

 

Only the SS 2.0 has a PCV valve, and it's inaccessible.