Merry Christmas everyone!It's finally time for an update on the smoke situation. Long story short I still am not sure whether it was just moisture at the start and still moisture now.
The turbo's now been rebuilt and replaced and it may be just placebo but I feel it's become a bit more responsive, but not faster.
Here's a video of the exhaust valves my mechanic took, and look a bit dodgy on piston 1 and 3:
As for the smoke/steam, it's still there. Except in this following video, where I spent a good half hour flooring it up and down the local dual carriage way at 1am
If the valve seals are to blame it would make sense, since when the engine's really hot they would swell and stop the leak, right? But it's the same result as if I had cleared out all the water out of the exhaust. Still a mystery that requires more testing.
I also got a check engine light that gave me a fright, but my mechanic friend confirmed it was just the N249 Valve (Diverter Valve) acting up since it's old. There's no loss in power or change in engine sound whatsoever. He cleared it 40 miles ago and it hasn't come back since.
I've done nearly 100 miles in the car and I can tell the oil consumption has improved, but to what extent it's too early to tell. It's tough for me to measure the oil level accurately as all the local shared parking spaces are on slopes.
The reason for this improvement could also be that two of the three external oil leaks have been fixed, the leaking turbo banjo bolt and the valve cover gasket. The only external oil leak left is the vacuum pump.
In the 6 months of owning this car I have driven it a grand total of 2 weeks, and I want nothing more than to simply drive it at this stage. I'll post again once I get an accurate oil consumption figure and/or if they're are any more problems.
Once again thanks everyone who chimed in to help me with this issue
Happy Holidays