Diesel engines rely on adiabatic pressure to reach the ignition point of the fuel. A lot of things tie in to that. Gray smoke on start up indicates you are getting barely enough fuel, and barely enough compression. Add that to needing to run off idle after start up indicates several things.
1. Low compression. Adiabatic pressure is built by compression. If it was rated at 18:1 originally, and is now down to 16:1 that will make a huge difference in starting, and staying running.
2. Crank speed(mentioned already). The faster the piston rises, the better adiabatic heating is generated. You could push the piston up super slow, and generate no pressure as it leaks past the rings.
3. Gray smoke indicates complete combustion of the fuel, with no residual fuel left over. Many old diesels will exhaust a bit of black smoke, which indicates plenty of fuel, and incomplete combustion. There is a fine balance there, because too much fuel can inhibit combustion and cause the combustion event to be extinguished before it gets hot.
Have you tried any starting fluid? Carb Cleaner? Warning, starting fluid for gas engines can damage a diesel. I've used WD-40, which is primarily Kerosene, not that much different that diesel, but it is vaporized in CO2(harmless). Of if you have a propane bottle handy with a hose, you could give it a snort of that when trying to start it.
Warning again, if you use propane, into the intake, and you have the glow system on, you may find parts of your engine in the next zip code.
If the glow system is in top condition, you would look at the fuel delivery, and if that is sorted well, next is compression. Is it using oil? Is the oil becoming contaminated with a lot of fuel? How much crankcase blowby are you getting?
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