Help! My poor baby...

[Relentless]

I've been a diesel engine lover for a while, and had previously owned large diesel engines such as cummins and detroits in old schoolbusses. I'd been dreaming of a little diesel car for so long, and a few weeks ago I found my dream car-A 1980 300sd turbodiesel.

I bought it in north carolina, and went to drive home to vermont.

It cranked right up, sounded pretty damn good for a 30 year old engine, and ran great. I was using quite a bit of oil, but was obsesivly checking my oil every 50-100 miles.

Abotu 100 miles from home, I started losing power going up steep hills, but I figured I was almost home, and would figure it out when I got there-she was still running great for the most part.

When I got about 50 miles from home, the leak seemed to be getting worse. The last time I stopped to check the oil, it took almost a halfgallon, after having checked it only 80 miles before.

12 miles after I added the last halfgallon I was driving, and with no warning at all the engine cut off, and I pulled to the side and saw that my baby had puked a gallon or two of oil onto the road. I opened the hood, and there was oil eeeverywhere. It seemed like it must have come from near the top-perhaps the valve cover gasket, or the blowback valve-both of which had been at least partial sources of the leak before.

Deleriouse from driving 900 miles pretty much straight thru, and almost home, I called AAA and got towed the last 30 miles home.

When I got home, I put oil in, and was startled to see that she cranked right up, and didn't sound much rougher then she did before.

I tested the compression, and found it very low (150-200) in all cylinders.

Unfortunatly, I had to canabalize an injector to get the tester to screw on, so now I at least need to find a new injector before I can drive her again.

Soooo....any thoughts? What's wrong with my baby? What happened? Is it a lost cause?

I'm certainly not a mechanic, but I've been living with (and therefor fixing...) janky diesel engines for a little while, and I'm not intimidated by getting my hands dirty. Do I need to find someone more qualified, or are there more diagnostic things I should try?

Thanks!