It’s really hard to tell by looking. They look normal but you need to pop them if you really want to check them. I thought your Vietnamese mechanic “checked” them already? Checked should mean popping them on a tester and looking at the spray pattern.

Ive read over your posts and you haven’t mentioned checking out your fuel tank strainer and your two fuel filters. Sorry if I missed it. If you haven’t you need to check and replace filters. This is a must when acquiring one of these diesels without a maintenance history. Top end power issues scream fuel filters to me.

I got my 300d with low power. It was really neglected. It was different though, it was weak off the line but had good top end power. I did all the basics boost line, valves, fuel filters, timing, rack damper adjustment, linkage adjustment, cleaned sticky turbo, removed clogged trap oxidizer. It seemed everything gave it some power back. Now it is a pleasure to drive and drives normally.

Then after all that, I tested my injectors. They were perfect and I put them right back.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles