djf1

Yesterday I thoroughly washed my 97 E320, gave her the clay bar/ polish/ glaze/ carnauba treatment , I almost spend the entire day on the car and made her look really great. I started the car to get it into my garage, it started fine but I smelled something shorting. I shut it off and park it for the night, thinking that water got into my recently lens broken left fog light. This morning I tried to start her up, nothing. It would crank and crank sounding like there was too much fuel mixture. Eventually she started and run a bit rough at first and then settled into her usual cold idle. The difference here is that she is smoking heavy white smoke... I smell gas like fume, not particularly oil fumes. I drive it around the block and she still smokes heavy white smoke.
I checked under the car for oil. Nothing. I checked visually the engine bay. Nothing... Is this an indication of O-ring piston failure? I'm very puzzled, the car has plenty of miles on her about 120K.
Any help is appreciated.

raymond g-

sweet smelling exhaust?

check radiator for oil

have someone pressurize system and perform leakdown test to determine
if head gasket has fractured

Tommy_s4

smart idea, the 1996-1997 do have head gasket problems

galleryvw

the title to this thread sounded like my life in college

shdoug

I assume it was running fine before? Did you get water in the air filter box? That might cause this to happen. The engine is sucking water in and trying to enrich the fuel mixture to get to O2 correct. Take out your air filter and check for water in the box and air intake. Head gaskets and piston rings don't blow sitting in the garage. Drive it hard and see what happens. If it gets worse, it was already screwed up anyway, right?

djf1

UPDATE: You were right... I let the car sit for a week as I had to fly off to a convention and I scheduled a B service for the car for yesterday as it was due for it anyway. So I started the car and jumped out to see... no smoke... I drove the car and took it to the dealer. They had the car the whole day and looked at everything, but they could not find anything wrong or any leaks what so ever.
My thanks to all... I'm a happy man!