Help figuring out my problem.
 

Hello, thanks for anyone who takes the time to read this. Anyways one of my work trucks is a 2003 Ford F250 XL 2wd single cab with a 6.0 in it. my problem is whenever anyone goes to start it no matter if it is warm or cold out but colder is worse the cranking is forever and i mean over 30 seconds or more and than it will finally start. also it white smokes alittle out the exhaust and from a leak or something i haven't found in the engine bay. also when it does start a huge cloud of white smoke comes out right when it starts but than everything is normal. drives fine. idles fine. and the next time you start it as long as it has been sitting for a long time or over night itll start up pretty quick.

any thoughts on what it could be. i only know how to test the ficm with my tuner from a different truck but watching the volts when starting and when the truck is running and its 47-48 so im guessing thats good.

not sure what else to check. but my ideas are hpop, glow plugs. so any ideas or ways to test thoughs would be great thanks.

I'm thinking your glow plugs modual isn't functioning properly. If you can quickly chech with a volt meter and see if you can probe into any glow plug some how and the other probe to a ground and see if you got 12 volts when you initially turn on the key and shows a glow plug symbol, when the engine is cold of coarse. Have you ever plug in the trucks block heater before? Do that for 3 hours and see if it does it. This can prove too that the glow plugs are the issue.

will try. i know it was plugged in before and is over night, but i was never there to try to start it after it was plugged in over night.

truck starts easier when plugged in.

Well I'm pretty sure you got glow plug problems. So up to you if you want to bring it to a good mechanics shop or Ford with a scanner and get them to check it out. Shouldn't cost to much. Even a new module is about $180 and glow plugs are about $8-10 each.
Or you can try to perform your own test, we can definitely help you. But if you don't have time for it just keep plugging in the truck.

Would bad glow plugs cause smoke in the engine bay. Cause when you crank it from cold start a lot of smoke comes from the backside of the engine while cranking even if the truck isn't started and also from the tailpipe. But once the truck does start it just shoots out the smoke it made while cranking and than the truck is perfectly normal

Because what I'm thinking is happening is that, the injectors are shoot fuel into a cold cylinder, causing it not to ignite properly, and in turn it cause white smoke. Glow plug have to pre heat the cylinder chamber so to help ignite the fuel properly. And I think it's not doing its job. But once as you say the engine runs abit or when it's warm, no problems, because the cylinder chamber is already warm.
Other possibility maybe related to bad injection timing (bad ficm or bad injectors(like 3 or more)), but the problem in case like that would be all the time

As for the smoke at engine bay, of coarse because of the un burnt fuel, but sometime that smoke can squeeze through the manifold or exhaust pipes. But if you find it excessive then you might have a loose exhaust flange or a leaking manifold gasket