You need to correct the amount of oil in the engine first. Too much oil
can cause smoking, white smoke. Put the van on a level spot and make
sure the level is correct by removing a few quarts.

If nothing else you can drain all the oil and then put 4 quarts of fresh
oil back in. The smoking should stop shortly after you correct the over
filled situation.

Mark

Ben S wrote:
>...............
> this afternoon, i went to take a better look.  at this point i was still
> thinking that my problem was some kind of oil leak, so first i checked
> the oil level.  it was overfilled.  this leads me to beleive that
> perhaps i made an erronous reading the night before.  it was dark and
> snowing; i was on a steep hill on a blind curve blocking half a lane and
> was quite anxious and hurried.  so i started the engine cautiously.  it
> started easily and idled smoothly.  the oil pressure light stayed off.
>  and huge clouds of white smoke billowed from the exhaust.
>