My '80 300TD just started doing this. If the car sits for more than 3 or 4 hours, or especially first thing in the morning, it smokes HEAVILY (white) and will not idle for a minute or 2. It starts immediately, no glow plug issue, but right away starts to sputter and smoke. After a couple of minutes, it holds idle and doesn't smoke any more than normal.
I have adjusted the valves (I even pulled the valve cover and inspected my valve adjustments again), I drained the 'FUEL' tank(PEH, that's for you buddy), I removed tank filter which was spotless, I changed fuel filters, I have run several tanks of diesel, with biocide/additive. No change at all. I'm at a loss at this point...
Jimmy

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Jimmy, I think the white indicates water--blue/oil---black/fuel.

Have you checked your coolant? Low? Oil in coolant??

I'm no expert--what do you experts think????

Good luck--

Cheers,

Bill

I think water is invading the combustion chamber,from where will be any bodys guess,
good luck.
Tom Brown
Va Section

JimmyL,

Do a resistance on the GP. Replace any that don't read about 0.7 ohms.

P E H

Does it also nail a little after first cranking it? It may be a leaking injector.

I think you have a bad glow plug or two. Even though it starts right up, it's not fully firing on one or two cylinders when its cold. If it were coolant, it wouldn't go away, when it warms up.

My $.02 worth....good luck!

__________________
1976 240D
1987 560SL
2007 E320 Bluetec
1998 C280 (now son’s car)
1982 240D Manual - Sold

JimmyL:
Were all wondering what was the cause of your problem? What was the fix?

__________________
Den
1993 MB 300D 2.5
2001 VW Jetta TDI 5 spd.
2001 new bug TDI 5 spd.
Motorcycles

I've been following this thread as well. Puzzles interest me.

Maybe its not fixed.....

Cheers,

Bill