Oil in Air filter and intake hose

[63-230sl]

I have just started going over the mechanical work on a 63 230SL (manual transmission) that has an engine miss and blowing smoke out of the exhaust. I have discovered that it has the wrong distributor cap and a vacuum retard throttle body matched to a vacuum advanced distributor. As I was taking off the air filter top and intake hose to replace the filter and adjust the throttle linkage, it had a lot of engine oil in the intake hose and sitting on top of the air filter. It had so much oil that the intake hose left a puddle of oil on the floor when removed. The hose coming from the top of the valve cover did not seem to have a lot of oil in it. Just the typical oil residue you see in an engine breather system. The car has been sitting for almost 6-months without being started as I have been out of the US for a while.

Before I start tearing things apart, any recommendations or known areas that can cause this? Hopefully this is the source of the exhaust smoke.

[Benz Dr.]

Sounds like you have quite a bit of blow by coming out of the engine. The hose going to the throttle body is supposed to vent these fumes back into the engine to be burned but if the volume is more than the pipe can handle it will build up pressure inside of the crank case.
I've seen where the venting hose was blocked or even partly blocked on an early 230SL and a lt of oil was spewing out of the dip stick.
If you have oil building up at the throtttle plate and smoke coming out of the exhaust you need to do some basic testing. Compression test, vacuum test or leak down testing should tell you how sound the engine is but my money wopuld be on worn valve guides. You can also have cylinder wear but most of the time smoking is caused by head problems.

PM if you need any help.