So I've adjusted the valves and it starts much better but still lots of smoke. Almost every valve was tight.

I bought diesel purge and ran it, there was no smoke the whole time while the engine was running on the diesel purge, but the smoke returned at the same levels as soon as soon as I started pulling fuel from the tank again. I HAD RUN various oils before, but it's been I'd say 4 or 5 full tanks of #2 since I've done that and I drove it to las vegas from san francisco with no problems. Is there a chance that the fuel I got in souther CA isn't good for up here in Boulder? Or will it just not smoke at all when diesel purge is going through it? This is a little confusing. Also, the "dead end" return line from my #4 injector was squirting while I was priming the system and it appears to leak while running. The smoke I'm getting LOOKS like oil smoke, but it doesn't make a lick o' sense that it would GO AWAY while the purge was running...can I get some help here? I'm getting a whitish/blue smoke. There is no oil/diesel in the coolant and when I adjusted the valves there was no coolant in the head, and the system doesn't pressurize until it is warm i.e. probably not a head gasket problem. I get a lot of blowby but I've been driving a lot lately and I'm really not losing much oil. The car runs well except for the smoke. Any help? Again, I'm sorry if I'm being vague and I'm sorry if this has been covered. I know smoke has often been covered so I was thinking leaky injector or something, but could just bad diesel cause whitish smoke? I dunno. TIA.
-Nate

p.s. it's saturday night...I'm a little tipsy so please forgive poor typing or rambling.

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'82 240D, 4-speed, 617 turbo engine

You must have gotten pretty good mileage out of that fuel if you still had some left when you got to Boulder.

if your braided return lines are leaking, you need to replace, they are cheap insurance.

Did you double check your valves when doing them? are you confident that they are right??

I would think maybe bad fuel if purge cleared up the smoke. When was your last filter change?

If you think it is an oil problem, check your play in your turbocharger bearings. When the turbo bearings go bad, they spew oil into the intake, causing smoke, but usually loss of power comes with it? any signs?

What I'm thinking is that it's clearly not an oil problem because the smoke stopped when the fuel from my tank stopped coming in. I don't have a turbo, I have a N/A 240d. The car was towed from Las Vegas to Boulder, I was getting 25mpg @ about 80mph average. I'm not sure the valves are perfect, but they are BETTER than they were, I will check them again in a little, I'm due for an oil change soon anyway. Anything else vague?
-Nate

even more tipsy than earlier

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'82 240D, 4-speed, 617 turbo engine

Welcome to my world Nate! If you find out what it was please post or PM me. I've had this problem since the summer...
Jimmy

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

I would recommend not working on her till you are no longer tipsy. Gets me in trouble every time!

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Think Alternative Energy!
300CD '80 (now gone but not forgotten...)

Any help on this one? btt, sorry if it's been covered, I can't really find anything about temporary change in smoke amount due to diesel purge. Thanks.
-Nate

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'82 240D, 4-speed, 617 turbo engine

I would have to second the above opinion. Remove and flush/clean the fuel tank & strainer. Replace fuel filters then see how it goes. I just did this on mine.

filters are pretty new, but I will give this a shot. I just filled up with diesel and abotu 5 gallons of Biodiesel because that's helped with smoke in the past, but after abotu 30 minutes of driving it's still smoking pretty bad. Weird thing was, it wasn't smoking at all right when I started it up this morning, then after a minute of so it started smoking again. Also, during acceleration like onto the freeway it was hesitating like when I had clogged filters. I'll search about the tank cleansing. Thanks, I was kind of thinking I had bad fuel too, but it seems like new fuel hasn't fixed it.
-Nate

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'82 240D, 4-speed, 617 turbo engine

Mine was smoking embarassingly bad Some folks here can relate to this!

If your tank is infested with slimy fungus than fresh bio diesel isn't going to clear it up. You should also add Biobor after the cleaning to just be safe. Some prefer to clean out the tank using Biobor and a dozen or so prefilters and a few main filters without removing the tank. Personally doing it the right way is much more rewarding. It is such a pleasure to watch the car run now without smoking and the prefilter full of clear honey colored fuel.

You do have a prefilter on your car now right? What color is the fuel in there?

It’s fairly opaque. It is golden in color, but pretty turbid. I know our bus fleet has had fungus problems or something running on b20. I haven’t had BD in it for a while though. I think it’s time for some biocide and some new filters and see if I can quick fix it. Thanks.
-Nate

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'82 240D, 4-speed, 617 turbo engine

If you have a algae problem you should be able to see lots of black or dark brown crud in the prefilter (provided its of a clear body construction) and the car will not necessarily smoke at idle, it should run up to a point then get to lugging and smoking. I'll wager it's something else no one mentioned.
There is also a possibility that the vacuum diaphragm is leaking and engine oil is getting sucked into that path, that also is easy to spot, remove the vac line and see if its filed with oil residue, or put a mity vac on it using a tight fitting hose connection at the end of the line opposite to the pump (where it attaches to the brake booster) and see if it will hold vacuum fairly well.
If the exhaust smells oily then either the vac pump is leaking, you need valve stem seals or maybe you have a cracked ring. For your sake I hope its the vac diaphragm.

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

One thing is, I haven't really been losing oil any more than before it started smoking. The behaivior is a lot like when my filters were clogged with WVO, but it's not consistent, sometimes I will accelerate and it will drive like a dream and other times it's really laggy and feels like it's "cutting out" I'll check out the vacuum stuff tomorrow. The same thing happened again tonight, right when I started it up there was like no smoke then after a minute or two it was back at it again. Like you said, I really hope it's nothing serious, but I'm saving my pennies for a 300d engine.
-Nate

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'82 240D, 4-speed, 617 turbo engine

Valve guides bad = sucking oil.