I'm looking at my friend's Geo. 1996, 1.3 4cy. He says it's hard to start when cold.

It starts almost right away every time for me, so I used a spark tester, and alternately an inductive timing light, to check spark. There is no spark until the engine gets cranking pretty fast.

There are no codes set.
It has a new ignition coil, new igniter, new cam sensor. I think it might be the crank sensor, but it is supposed to set a code. It sets a code if i remove it. Any thoughts?
Or should I just tell him to run 0W30 in it so it cranks fast ?