Bigger? Bigger problem?
That's really sound advice. My problem is that I have always worked on petrol engines and its knowing where to start. So the engine starts and runs ok, it puts the sun out but it runs. It was black smoke but I turned the CV injector pump a little anti clockwise and its now grey smoke but still lots of it. My gut feeling is a timing issue but moving the pump more does not improve things plus the pump is at the end of it's allowed travel. This started me looking at perhaps the timing chain being worn and so making the timing out more than moving the pump can correct. A friend let me have a set of recon injectors. They did not improve anything. My understanding is the grey smoke is unburnt fuel which bring me again back to timing. Stretch, am I making things more complicated than they really are or am I missing something really simple??????
Best wishes
Bob
If you really want to find a problem with it then I'm sure you will be successful. If I were you I wouldn't start imagining things.
I urge you to do the simpler things first - see if you can make some improvements that doesn't include a full strip down. If you do want to do a compression test (I wouldn't if were you) a compression tester isn't all that bank breaking to buy these days (make sure you get a diesel version though)