Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting funny smell and smoke on start

lately I have noticed my car not to be starting on the 1 or 2 cranks it normally would. the other day it took 2 tries because I expected it to start right away as usual. Lately it has taken 4-8 starter cranks to turn over and when it does...there is a small amount of smoke out of the exaust...after that it's fine but it makes a sound sometimes if it doesn't crank easily...it makes a moaning noise and the rpm's stay around 500-600 and I have to depress the gas to get it up where it would normally start when warming up. I really don't have a clue when it comes to the smoke thing...I had my cat's replaced by recall and I removed both resonators shortly after...I have a 2 1/4 inch pipe right from the cat's to the high flow muffler. The car has made the moaning on occasion but usually only when I don't crank it properly the first time and I'll try again and that's when it happens...usually 2 cranks will start it but sometimes it's "cranky" (pardon the pun) and requires a little more time when the key is a crankn'. It's only got 88 thou kilometers on it so I'm thinking it might be timing belt/chain?? That has never been done...sorry for the lengthy speach but I wanted to give as much as I could...help would be greatly apreciated...if it's a problem possibly very serious...don't tell me about it...I'm an out of work computer guy who's breakn' the bank buyn' gas!!!