Cloud of white smoke
 

I have a 1980 450 SL. When the car is cold after about 1 minute I get a very large cloud of white smoke for the exhaust. This lasts about a minute. If I restart the car when it is still warm I do not get any smoke. I am thinking that I have a bad transmission vacuum modulator. I think I can check it by removing the vacuum line that connects to the back on the intake manifold. If I disconnect the vacuum line and start the car and it does not smoke I would guess it must me the vacuum modulator. Any thoughts on the smoking problem? Will I have to remove the transmission to get at the vacuum modulator?

-Help

Used to happen on old Fords. Transmission fluid got sucked into the intake manifold. I suppose it is possible in your case.

Are you loosing any coolant?

William Rogers........

On my 350SL I have the same problem with white smoke.
In my case ,the oil come from the left valve house cover. If i take away the rubber hose from the cover to the suplementary air valve. The smoke was gone.:)

It does not look like I am loosing and coolent. The amount of white smoke is large, but only lasts about a minute, so the amount of coolent could be very small.

The smoke is white and does not smell like fuel, it doesn't have any smell at all really.