[Vwdiesel] White smoke means?

[Jim Arnott]

So after a month's hiatus we finally returned to the
Stinkenklankenkampenwagen.  For those that need a refresher, the
aforementiond SKKW is an '82 Westy with a 1.5 ltr bunny motor and
Vanagon fuel pump.

We stopped off and chatted with the kinda local Bosch injection
specialist, Wentland Diesel Service in Milton-Freewater, OR.  Their
opinion was that the Vanagon pump ought to be able to correctly fuel
the smaller motor.  Their tech recommended backing off the "smoke"
screw one full turn and taking it from there.  Doing this resulted in a
noticably cleaner exhaust with just a puff of white smoke on free
acceleration.  Now I suspect that the timing has become the issue.

The factory setting for the Vanagon pump is .88mm.  The factory setting
for the Rabbit pump is 1.05-1.15mm. Right now I'm timed near the Rabbit
setting.  IIRC, white smoke means too much advance, correct?

What is the effect of advance and retard on a Diesel engine?  This
motor sounds good, but it's as gutless as gutless can be. Any chance
that retarding the timing will yield a touch more power?  I'd like to
get it close enough that I can drive it over the pass to the experts
for fine tuning... As it is now, it would be an all day expedition (75
miles, over a 5k ft pass.)

As always, thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Jim