My uncle said that the previous owners installed a "cold start". What the heck is this? What is the stock? I'm flipping through my manual and I'm not finding anything.

That is the cold start valve. When the engine is cold at start ,it will give a momentary shot of fuel into the intake plenum. Kind of like a choke I suppose on a carb'd car. It shuts off quickly.
I'm not sure about the wiring I see there, but the white wires should be conected to the wires comming out of the black protective sheath. I use butt conectors and then cover those with a 2 inch piece of shrink wrap.
Chris

cool. figured it just needed soldering. wasn't sure if they added something weird.I can tidy that up! Wish everything was that easy a fix. lol!!