Diesel Bombers - By way of introduction

Just this year (2010) I bought my first ever diesel. I've had a 03 silverado Duramax as a work truck for about two years and a couple of brothers who have had nothing but diesels(volkswagons but still diesels) for a couple decades now. I bought a 98 6.5T Sierra. Low clicks and a clean truck. Loved it until just a couple weeks ago when what I thought was a cold start problem turned into a major no start problem. worked on gas engines all my life and knew almost nothing about diesels (thought I had time). One crash course later with a lot of reading of threads from the 6.2/6.5 pages I am at this very moment waiting for an ip to come in after changing my PMD didn't fix the problem. Don't like being held prisoner to shops for access to a scan tool so if someone knows where to source a reasonable priced one I wouldn't mind hearing about it Will probably look into a piston change (to 18:1) and turbo upgrade when I win a lottery(if I don't blow the damn thing up first of course) My thanks to all those whose problems and solutions were so helpful and maybe someday I can give a little help back