Transmission or engine sluggish when first cold
 

Could be the engine also. It is a 01 excursion 7.3L 4x4 auto. This has happened a couple of times anyways. Seems like if it is below freezing for the night, the next morning when you take off there is hardly any response from the engine/transmission. Once it gets about 200 feet then is wakes up. Any ideas? Also seems to shift into od pretty firmly a lot of the time. We just bought it around 4 weeks ago with around 114k miles. Thanks for any help.

Perfectly normal, especially if it's that cold.

I got mine new and was initially worried about it, but then it donned on me that it wasn't a gas engine and probably needed time to warm up.

Plug it in at night and use 2 bottles of Prolong oil additive in your motor oil (Autozone) and it'll make a difference with the cold starts and cold weather performance. Worked well for mine...

Plug it in, as stated above, do a full prime of your glow plugs, and start. Give it a minute to warm up, don't shift to drive directly and go. The viscosity of the oil in the trans and engine gets pretty thick when it's that cold. If you aren't already, try rotella t 5w-40 full synthetic next time. Made a difference on cold starts for me. But let it go for a bit before you go, once the oil gets moving, then you're good to go.

as said about many times let it warm up and let the oil circulate before driving. this should help.

The ebpv (exhaust back pressure valve) probably has something to do with it too.

I know the 6.0L's wouldn't allow you to "get up and go" right away, maybe the 7.3's had the same tuning.

My 96 f250 7.3 doesn't do that. It wasn't that cold, maybe high 20's to low 30's. It like something isn't communicating between the skinny pedal and engine. I just changed the oil with motorcraft 5w-40. As it gets colder we will be letting it warm up some in the mornings. I haven't even looked to see if there is a heater plug but if it doesn't what is needed to add one?

Its your ebpv It stays closed until your oil warms up then it actuates and will run fine I usually use 5w40 in the winter up here alberta it also works better if you plug in your block heater and let it warm up for a bit or you can take the ebpv out and no more problem

Pretty sure if my memory is right that the computer will limit power until the a certin temp to keep the motor from hurting the transmission. I put 140,000 on my 00 ex psd here in MN so it was used in the cold half its life. I always used Mobil 1 trans fluid and Delvac 1300 15w 40.

I usually let it idle some and on colder mornings, maybe 5F or less plug it in. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a warning for major problem.