Mk1 diesel cold start smoke

Our '78 mk1 diesel smokes quite a lot on cold start. Is this fairly normal for an old diesel or have I got issues growing?
Smoke goes away after a few minutes warm up. 

Smoke is it white or black/blue?
White smoke is usually condensation in the exhaust that has to burn out and will stop 10-15 minutes after getting all the pipes warm, and not to be considered a issue.

Sweet smelling smoke usually indicates a bad head gasket and will smoke continuously.

Black/blue smoke is oil bypassing the rings or bad tiiming of the injection pump clod start could indicate that you have one or more glow plugs that need to be replaced.  if your engine idles rough when cold (noisier) that is also a sign of bad
gp's.

There are 2 versions of them the seven second ones and the wait forever.

two good pages.
https://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/CheapTricks/GlowPlugs.shtml
and
https://vincewaldon.com/2009/09/26/how-to-troubleshoot-your-glow-plugs/

 

Hey Briano!
Blue/black smoke. But it does clean up after it warms up. 

I did wonder about rings etc. how can one fix injection pump timing? Would this still be the case if the smoke goes away when warm or would it hang around?


It really does run rough when cold. Almost like it's missing so perhaps that is the issue. You have guided me towards a glow plug upgrade and relay upgrade to 7s but I'm struggling to find where to get the correct relay and the correct GPs. Can anyone guide me specifically? Located in AUS if that helps?

If it is running correctly when warm, I would replace the glow plugs first.

Timing the injection pump involves using a dial in gauge and rotating the IP left or right to get it going correctly.

The Vince walden link has some good information on all your issues that you are posting about.  

I owned a diesel for 20 years, 1980-2000, and I haven't touched one since.  I am going on re-memory :