This is alot of great advice. It still baffles me that this much thick smoke could possibly come from injection pump timing being off but you guys are the pros. On a gas car, I'd swear it was burning a ton of motor oil because it is thick lighter smoke but not white like burning antifreeze. I did see a little of the black smoke today which I thought was probably unburned diesel but there is much more of the lighter colored, thick smoke.

I keep thinking it's a head gasket leak on number 1 cylinder but I'll start with the simple stuff that you guys have mentioned. I also noticed that my oil pressure gauge was pinned when the car was running...that kind of makes me think it is blowing compression into the oil return raising the oil pressure reading to the gauge. It almost runs like it has a "miss" and I know that is a term usually used for spark ignition cars.

I wish I knew the car's history. 179k on the odometer. It looks like the valve cover gasket was recently changed out. I found a long bolt (maybe a head bolt) lying in the bottom radiator shroud caught between the shroud and the radiator. I'll freak out if I take off the valve cover and see that a bolt is missing...lol. Anything is possible I guess. The mechanic on Doc Hollywood always has a box of extra parts....remember? Maybe he worked on it last.