7.8 smokes on start up
 

so, as I mentioned in a previous thread, i'm working on my 1989 f800. when the truck first starts up when cold, it smokes for about 20 minutes then clears up. no loss of power. any ideas?

That is very common with the 6.6 and 7.8 engines. You can double check the timing, and fuel pressure, but I've seen quite a few do that and run fine for many years.

could the turbo be leaking a little after sitting over night? I've seen that happen on logging equipment. also, where can I pull a boost gauge off of this system?

It is possible, yes.
There should be a couple fittings on the intake manifold you can use. The intake is dry, so any port will be air.

Mine is clean burning on startup. And only shows fuel smoke when getting on it. And need to turn the smoke screw back on it to cut part of that out. As it leaves 2 trails of smoke at every shift or when pulling. Will blow smoke 30ft behind me under a load.

Is yours fuel smoke or oil smoke? Wondering if you have something leaking oil down into the motor and taking a while to burn it off? Or fuel and having to burn it off?

I can't find if the glow plugs go through a warm up cycle like they do with the pickups to eliminate fuel smoke after startup.
Do they?

No glow plugs on these. Just starts more like a gas motor.
Pete