83 300 TDT Turbo Oil Leak

[hd wood]

Hi Guys! This is my first post of the forum and I'm hoping for a little good news.

I have a 5 cylinder engine that seems to be in otherwise great shape that seems to be leaking oil into the air filter (even shows up at the air intake upfront) and generally gets all over the place. My mechanic is 45 years MB retired and knows diesels very well. He feels my problem is in the rings and therefore not worth chasing. I'm not sure how much oil the engine uses but it is quite a bit. It doesn't smoke or anything just gets loose in the engine compartment. It seems like it's all on the passenger side of the engine. Any comments, direction, instructions would be appreciated. The body only has about 130K on it and the engine less that that. Thanks.

dave