Thanks for that info

Since I'm doing "statistical methods for business" homework I decided to take a break from numbers and go tinker with the car. I found that the vacuum connection from the hard plastic line that comes off the banjo bolt had a (bad) tear in the rubber caused by some stupid ******* yanking on it too hard (hint, I might be the stupid ******* ) Thankfully I was able to repair the tear and the line now holds vacuum. The idle is back to where it used to be (smoother.) That big cloud of gray smoke that started on a cold startup two days ago is gone and there is very little smoke on a cold idle again.

My conclusion... Since the off boost fuel wasn't regulated (that vac line wasn't holding vac) there was way too much fuel (hence the big cloud of gray smoke) and the engine stalled. Now that it's repaired the engine is back to it's old self. It does sound almost like it's missing slightly on one cyl when it's on a cold idle. But that miss goes away with any increase in engine speed, or when the engine has warmed up for a minute or so.

I also tested the following;
-resistance on all glow plugs is below 1 ohm
-glow plug wires all showed continuity
-glow plug relay, fuse are working as they should.


I want to add, the plugs are all new Bosch plugs. First I tried "autolite" plugs and they're complete ****. I took them out within a day. The bosch plugs are great! Note, the plugs that were in the car when I got it were Bosch and actually tested well (resistances of around 1 ohm or so.) I cleaned them up and I'm keeping them for spares. The glow plug relay is from Fastlane (so sad to see Phil leave)