Still trying to figure this out, I dont notice any smoke on the highway, just a little haze under hard acceleration, that is worst when the engine kicks down and the rpms are higher. And the grey smoke at idle, hot or cold, is still there. I recently did a compression test and checked timing with the proper tool, the timing was exactly 15 deg atdc, and the compression read a max of 400, with a low of 370, but it was most likely higher because the cheap gauge I had leaked air slightly. Also I have burned a quart of oil in 3500 miles, not sure if thats ok or not, running mobil 0w40, there are absolutely no oil leaks. All thats left is a new IP (dont think its that, engine idles smooth as butter), valve stem seals, and to check the rear of the turbo for oil. I had a few questions:

1. If the turbo was leaking oil from the exhaust (intake side is clean, no shaftplay) wouldn't that mean huge clouds of white/blue smoke, not just a gray to black haze? I would like to avoid having to disconnect the exhaust side if this is not likely to be my problem.

2. I took off the intake to change the injector nozzles and found it wet with oil even after disabling egr, not dripping, but wet, is this normal? The engine has no blowby out of the cap.

3. My understanding is that a diesel wont smoke from bad valve stem seals like a gas engine would, because there is little to no vacuum to pull oil down the valve stem, is this assumption correct? Again, I want to avoid the labor unless it is likely to fix my problem, but don't mind doing the job to fix it right.