Hard starting in winter

My 1998 Snoma (4 cyl) 174000 miles, has a hard time starting in the winter after the engine has warmed up. It starts fine when the engine is dead cold. When warm, the engine will crank several times and cough or even backfire through the intake before finally starting. It has even broken one starter doing this. It is not showing any diagnostic codes. This sounds like a lean mixture condition but I have no idea why.