Hi

DON'T PANIC......

By the sounds of it there is nothing wrong, all turbos will have a certain amount of play in the shaft depending when it is hot or cold. The smoke is very normal for a turbo car. And the main reason you see the smoke is because of the missing cat.

In answer to your question normally when a turbo goes their is lots of play in the shaft which allows oil into the intake. Hence why there would be blue smoke. You would normally see a drop in performance as well.

Regards

Tom aka Zippy