troubled cold starts

my 2000 psd has lately been a little slow to start first thing in the morning. and sluggish until it warms up. after that its fine though. i did a little checking and my intake heater solenoid is bad. but i live in southern california so its never actually cold. is that the problem or could it be something else?

It's not the intake heater relay. You can remove it from the engine and it won't affect how it starts.

How many miles on the truck? How long since the last oil change? Know anyone with a scanner that can run some tests for you?

Its got 200,000 on it and its about due for an oil change

Is it sluggish starting or does it take a long time cranking to start? Does it smoke at all when it does start? Does it have a block heater?

It just cranks a lot the first time of the day. No more smoke than normal I think and no block heater

I am betting injectors are getting tired. It's about time.
When you say extended crank time, are you talking like a second or longer than five seconds. If the latter, before you start it in the morning, pull the little Allen head bolt out of the HPOP reservoir and dip it with a hunk of coat hanger or something. You should see the oil level at less than an inch from the top.

What do you consider about due for an oil change? The last guy that told me it was "about due" had 12,000 miles on 3 gallons of Rotella 15w-40 and 1 gallon of Lucas.

If it's past due, change the oil. Checking the HPOP level would be the next easy step. If that's good, plug the truck in for a few hours before starting and see if it fires off faster after being plugged in.

what kind of Oil are you running?

No haha I'm just over 3000 since the last change and ivory always run rotella t

how often do you change your oil?