I just bought a 83 300td w123 and there is a moderate amount of smoke from the exhaust on idle and on acceleration is this common on a diesel that has 217000 and moderate blow-by?she runs strong and sounds good and idles superbly,is this something that can be remedied with a valve adjustment?or any other adjustment?

what color is the smoke, white, grey, black, blue-ish tint to it?

greyish-black

adjust the ALDA under the hood..

its on the injection pump, square thing with a nut and screw sticking out of it.. located on the rear closest to the firewall.. takes a 10mm wrench and a flathead... untighten the locknut, and be very careful, use the "jewlers method" of adjusting..screw in to limit the fuel, screw out for more fuel.... the ALDA give more fuel off the line for more power (its an altitude device... ) and you will get more smoke..

Jackal,

I noted that my car runs fine but starts smoking at lights when the A/C is on.
I use to follow the MB rule of doing a valve adjustment every 15k and this did not happen. Since the car runs fine, I wait until the smokes at the light with the A/C on begins and I take it for a valve adjustment. It then stops smoking. I go 20k to 30k before a valve adjustment. I never had to adjust the ALDA. I hope this helps.

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In scuba diving and skydiving as in life, if it isn't fun, your doing it wrong.

Original owner & daily driver, 1983 300SD 298,000 miles.