Help me diagnose a smokey Benz....

OK, so my Merc has started smoking, a lot. It happened pretty quick. One day I thought I noticed a bit more smoke than usual. Within a week I pulled it off the road.
I suspected the turbo because there was oil in the intake side of it and the intake hose between the filter box and turbo had oil in it. Enough that it ran out on the garage floor and left a 4" spot in about an hour. So, I check the turbo and there is no end-play, lateral or axial. Hmmm, me thinks. So, on the advice of a buddy I pull the turbo off expecting to see the exhaust side full of soot (BTW, the last time I drove it I'm pretty sure i had no boost).
The exhaust side looked good. So, I'm poking around and notice the vac solenoid that controls the EGR is sooted up, real bad, almost solid. The "flapper" valve in the turbo housing for the EGR is soaked with oil. The #1 exhaust mani runner has oil in it, the others seem ok. I hope this week I'll be able to do a comp test (terrified at what I could find) but I wanted to ask the brain-trust here what you all think.
Some randon thoughts/observations
I've been told oil in the intake side of the turbo is common on these cars.
I started it up with the intake plumbing off and the turbo did spin, and sped up with higher revs.
When it was running (see line above) there was blow-by from the open PCV grommet, but the engine was stone-cold.
290K. running veggie oil since 217K but the oil is very clean, dry, and switched over warm.

How much blowby?

If you pull the oil cap off while the engine is running, does a gentle trickle of blowby come out or does it look like a freight train? Also, are there distinct puffs out of the oil fill?

When I get it running (exhaust mani is off now) I'll check. When I had it running with the PCV grommet open it was more like a freight train, but to tell the truth, that could have been when I was revving the engine, not sure.
someone on a benx forum said there is a somewhat common issue with the head gasket blowing, allowing oil in the #1 cylinder. When i had it apart I di dnotice oil in the #1 exhaust runner, the others were dry. When I get home tonight I will inspect the ports and run to HF to get a comp tester.

If it has been smoking for a while, don't rule out automotive emphysema.

Just leave it. Your miles per gallon is only getting better since oil is measured in quarts

Is it an automatic? Does it smoke more at idle or at higher rpms?

Only reason I'm asking is because I've had a few cars with automatics that suddenly started sucking ATF through a bad modulator on the transmission. They blow lots of smoke at idle.

Does it have a pierberg vaccum pump with a ruptured diaphragm?

Yeah, head gasket leaks on these are known to leak oil into #1. Using WVO has been known to make rings stick.

That model does have a Pierburg vac pump (driven by the IP timer, IIRC), but I would think if there was a rip in the diaphragm, he would notice other things like odd shifting or the engine not shutting off, or delayed shutting off with the key. I also don't recall there being a path for oil to get into the intake from the vac pump, but I could be wrong on that.

A member with a w126 6cyl diesel ended up having low compression on cylinder #2, turns out someone botched a top end rebuild and the engine had either a bent rod or crooked valves cannot remember which. I guess it smoked like a torch. I'd do a compression test to figure out if you have good compression before continuing. Apparently some mercedes diesels are know to oval out a cylinder but I'm no diesel expert.

I went back and re-read your original post and noticed you said it felt like it had no boost. If your egr valve is stuck open or not staying shut for whatever reason, you won't get much, if any boost and the car will smoke like hell.

Also if the wastegate isn't holding pressure...same thing.