Joe, I don't recall how many years the Q-Jet had bad castings ,and you would have to use epoxy at the bottom of the float bowl to keep the fuel from leaking into the intake,causing the very problem you are talking about. I will also throw this in so someone doesn't get onto me about aswering this wrong,make sure your accelerator pump is in working order. Make sure you check the fuel pump pressre as well.

probably has the quadrajet carb on it! I once had a late model Olds (mid-70's) engine in a 69 Firebird, it had a quadrajet carb and I had similar issues, hard to start, although I didnt have to use starting fluid but she would crank and crank until finally, boom, she would start, also very cold-blooded. First, I yanked off the carb, brought it to a guy I know who rebuilds carbs and he went through it, second, I found a small vacuum leak and repaired that, I never had another issue, she started right up, idled nice and was finally a joy to drive!