I have two diesel trucks: a 2009 E-350 with 6.0 PSD (my Sportsmobile), and a 2003 GMC with the LB7 Duramax. Neither one likes start-up in cold weather (below 20 F); I plug in both for a few hours in the morning before driving to work. This helps with warm-up, and cabin comfort, and windshield defrosting. Either will run just fine without plug-in, but it's a lot easier getting going if I do (and comfortable). Plugging in also produces a less sooty start-up (the nature of the exhaust coming out).
The 6.0 PSD, in particular, requires more warm up time before it will spool up on acceleration (e.g. pulling uphill out of my driveway). If I understand correctly, the "high idle" feature is not standard on all 6.0's, but I think it is on the heavier chassis (e.g. E-250 and E-350). I think it can be added... and if I'm not mistaken, it only functions when the parking brake is set. Before departure on a cold morning (which includes cool evenings in the summer where I live at 8,000' ASL), I allow the engine to idle long enough to let the high-idle kick in. Once it goes to the high-idle RPM's, I know when I get on the throttle to pull up the hill, it won't bog down on me.
My neighbor has a Sprinter with the blu-tec diesel. That engine is really bad on cold get-go. If he doesn't let it warm up and tries to drive up the hill where we live, not only will it not produce power, but he'll have to shut it off and start it up again (and let it idle to warm) before he can get any power out of it. Sprinter owners chime in to extrapolate on this.
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Brian
2009 E-350 Lopes 55
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