Raising exhaust gas temperature during cold-start period is very crucial to improve emission performance of SI engines because it enhances the performance of catalyst in the early stage of engine start. In this study, control variables such as ignition timing, idle speed actuator(ISA) opening and fuel injection duration were extensively investigated to analyze variations in exhaust gas temperature and engine stability during cranking period. Experimental results showed that spark timing affected engine stability and exhaust gas temperature but the effects were small. On the other hand, shortened injection duration and increased ISA opening led to a significant increase in exhaust gas temperature. Under such conditions, increase in cranking time was also observed, showing that it becomes harder to start the engine. Based on these observations, a pseudo fuel-air ratio, defined as a ratio of fuel injection time to degree of ISA opening, was introduced to analyze the experimental results. In general, decrease in pseudo fuel-air ratio raised exhaust gas temperature with the cost of stable and fast cranking. On the contrary, an optimal range of the pseudo fuel-air ratio was found to be between 0.3 to 0.5 where higher exhaust gas temperatures can be obtained without sacrificing the engine stability.