Gregor, for how many miles did you drive the van, if more than 30-45 minutes
and you still have smoke, not normal!

Have a coolant pressure test done, no way out, and both way:
http://www.benplace.com/pressure_test.htm
http://www.bostonengine.com/articles/waterboxes.html

Water in fuel wil not do white smoke, or if it does, a bit, engine will run
very bad or not run at all.

Cheers, Ben

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'86 Westy

I got into my van after it has 'sorta' been sitting for 3.5 months. I say
sorta because it has been started for extremely short periods of time by the
body shop it was in, just to move it around the shop.

As the engine was warming and I was running at speed, plumes of white smoke
came from the exhaust, especially when downshifting.

My first thought was coolant leak into a cylinder, but the smoke minimized
(but did not go away completely) as the engine warmed up to operating
temperature. After cool down the coolant level in the expansion tank had not
moved appreciably.

The van was stored with very little gas in it and I had just filled it
up....could it be water in the gas or do I reallyy have a headgasket leak?

Any ideas?

Thanks Gregor