first order of business tomorrow will be doing that reading several more times along with a pic of the reading so there is no doubt what it is saying.

Also on tap for first thing tomorrow is reading the Bigblockchev's thread there a couple more times. I've only done one lap though it and my eyes are blurry but it seems kind of encouraging in a way. That visual pump timing align method mentioned also seems interesting.

Bigblockchev your symptoms have some similarities to mine (other than I'm not so sure about the similarities of the smoke color) and I am fiddling with the same area of the car so that is encouraging.

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84 300SD 274K
38K miles on flatplate heat exchanger and various diesel/veg blends. prior to that 4K miles on unheated veggie blends with kero and DinoD.