Mysterious White Smoke

Driving my 1990 300E 2.6 yesterday, slogging around town after two days of rigorous rural interstate travel, mysterious white smoke began pouring from the exhaust while sitting at a light. No miss, no bad fluid readings. No pulsing of the exhaust flow at the tail pipe. Added a can of cleaner overnight, in case it was a fouled injector or something simple.

Started it this morning. Still smoked. Drove about 1/2 mile continuous throttle on an uphill ramp looking like Schumacher after he cooked one on the back chute...and then, voila...no smoke. 188,000 miles with regular maintenance but a little long on this oil change. Ran as good as ever the rest of the day.

Similar experiences or known diagnosis?

I am not a Tech but, white smoke is usually associated with water (coolant) in the combustion chamber. Could be a bad head gasket...

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'98 E430
MBCA-Peachtree

I am a tech and have seen this on some occasions. Most of the time the coolant has been neglected in service and has eaten through the head gasket. This causes a head gasket leak and loss of some coolant.

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Benzmac:
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
LEAD TECHNICIAN FOR 14 BAY FACILITY
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 8 YRS
PARTNER IN MERCEDESSHOP.COM

Just a short note to add...this is not a problem that you can postpone. Running with this condition will create very expensive engin damage.