My 300SDL (240K miles) smokes heavily on acceleration at high speed ( going from 50 to 75mph) There seems to be no air restriction, and power is good. Any ideas?

Time for a new Nicoderm patch?

Try a couple of bottles of LubroMoly Diesel Purge.

Check chain stretch and IP timing.

Frequent Italian tune-ups

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

My '86 smokes too, and I love to 'dust' the impatient tailgaters behind me... especially when they do an evasive swerve, thinking that I just blew up the engine!

I'm thinking that this is pretty normal, the OM603 engine does a wonderful job of adding #2 Diesel to the air in each cylinder, with a satisfying surge of power and a proud roostertail of soot!

Occasionally, when I'm doing 70 with the cruise set, I'll drop it into "3" to listen to the 4,000+ rpm music from under the hood and watch the amazing amount of junk vacate the exhaust system. I let it roar for a bit, then slip it back into "D."

I'll be curious to see what others say.

Best regards,
Jim

My '87 300TD does not typically exhibit the black plume on acceleration unless I have been making a series of short trips. On those occassions, as Jim wrote, I also love to cloud anyone too close to the rear. Like I have been taught by this forum, I drive her like she was meant to be. The first visit to the floor with the pedal will get some but not much.

The LubroMoly Diesel Purge certainly helped mine. I now keep a small supply on the shelf.

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Steve
'87 300TD - 132K - Soon 4-Sale
'84 300D Turbo - 122K - Driving
'77 VW Type II - 77K - Restored
'08 250EX Ninja
English Bulldog (Brier) - My best friend. Passed away 12/02/04 while in my arms.

My 603 doesn't seem to smoke much, if I idle it around town for a week or so she will give off a nice puff of dark brown smoke but other than that, their is not much. I would check on the things Sixto posted.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I cannot get any black smoke out of the 603 no matter how much I really need it. The most it will do is to leave a bit of a cloud at night if I drop it into third and kick it up over 4,000. However, its not black smoke, that's for sure.