I know others have already commented. Are you seeing smoke or "water vapor"?
Water vapor is a normal part of the combustion process. It is more visible
on a cold engine as it will condense in the exhaust and become apparent as
the exhaust heats up to drive it out.  Water can actually puddle in the
muffler and if hollow, the catalytic converter shell as well. When you drive
it, are you driving it far enough to actually get everything warm enough to
drive the moisture out? Just getting the coolant up to temp does not
qualify. Are you driving it because you need to or do you think you have to?
Weekly short cycles can be worse than just letting it sit. For short runs
the oil will also hold some water and this will pass the rings and also add
to the vapor cloud.

Combustion chamber, head gaskets, and even cracked heads in the exhaust
ports are all possibilities. Careful coolant monitoring and oil analysis
will help determine if there is a problem or not.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Alain Thibault
Sent: Saturday, January 18, 2014 7:11 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: White smoke when cold

Allo all
My van sits in the garage for most of the week and I drive it only once a
week. When I start it, there is a lot of white smoke...I mean a lot of
smoke. Alter 10-15 minutes, when the engine has reached normal temperature,
there is no more smoke. I know that it is normal that there is smoke when
the engine is cold but that much, I have rarely seen it. Being fairly new to
the Vanagon world, I wonder it this is normal? I would appreciate any of
your thoughts on the subject. I don't know if it is related to that, but
when the engine has reached normal temperature, it will need  2-3 cranks
before the engine starts again...
Thanks
Alain
1986 Westfalia

Sent from my iPad 2