Gray Smoke and clanking noise

[stano316]

Hello Everybody,

Im new to the site, and just picked up a 1984 300 SD, my first Mercedes Diesel. Its pretty clean, runs, drives, stops etc...It does have 251K on it so I know I will be chasing some gremlins. I paid very little for it, so I don't mind putting money into it.

So I have some issues, but the major one at the moment pertains to the gray smoke and clanking noise when running, bought it this way, but the PO said it just started to do it, who knows. The last time the car was used was in 2009, so it has been sitting for a while. Allegedly the timing chain was just replaced, not sure if that means years ago before it was stopped being used,`or just recently.

Start the car, runs, gray smoke from tail pipe. Leave it run for a little, and a clanking noise starts to develop that is idle dependent. Step on the gas, smokes more, clanking noise speeds up. The car drives, but power is down, under load still smokes.

I pulled the intake boot to the turbo, and it spins quite freely, no movement front to back, and almost no movement side to side. Air filter is clean. The oil is dirty, and will be changed soon, but doesn't smell like diesel, just old dirty oil. The clear pre fuel filter is pretty clean, and fuel looks ok. I have about a 1/2 tank in it, and will be filling up with new fuel when I get a chance.

Reading up on the interweb, I heard about this lubro-moly diesel purge, figure I give it a shot. Ran the inlet and return lines into a bottle with the diesel purge, and ran it at different speeds. Didn't really do much.

What should my next steps be. I just bought a boost gauge that I plan to T into the line going from the back of the intake manifold to the ALDA, and a fuel pressure gauge to mount either before the pre filter, or after the main filter.

Any help would be appreciated. Im new to this diesel world, so any acronyms I may miss in the beginning. Thanks again.