I used to chase that Instagram stack of dimes look on my roots too, figured if it looked clean it had to be solid. Then a guy on a pipeline job had me bend test one of my pretty caps and the root opened up like a book, porosity and cold lap all through it. That was a hard pill to swallow after years of thinking I was hot stuff. The old heads are right, nobody up on that iron cares how your root looks, they care that it holds when the load hits it. Cutting your own work open is humbling but it teaches you more in five minutes than a year of trying to look good.

You sure it was the primer count and not just that the motor finally warmed up enough to cooperate? I mean, 8 degrees is cold enough that your first three pulls could've been fighting stiff rings and thick oil no matter how many times you pumped it. My uncle's old 583 would start on pull two at 30 degrees and take six pulls at zero with the exact same routine every time. Maybe the fourth pull was just when things loosened up. Two pumps sounds fine but I wouldn't hang my hat on it being some magic number yet, give it a few more cold mornings before you declare victory.