My Intrepid Problem

i have a 97 intrepid 3.5 and went to start it the other day and discovered that my battery was almost dead, the car cranked a couple of time very slowly but never fired. the charger was put on it and i went to work, when i came home the battary was charged but now the car would crank and and fire and try to start but it would not start. i had so new plugs at home so i changed them and still nothing, i checked the spark, it was there. i checked the fuel pump it was working but still nothing, my friend then came over and tried to start it, when it would fire and almost start he started pumping the gas and after about 10 seconds it started up, idled rough for a couple of seconds and then ran fine the only weird things was that it was blowing a lot of white smoke out the exhaust, we both thought it was the head gasket but the smoke stopped in a couple of mins, it runs smooth and fine now, the old plugs all look the same which tells me water was not leaking in on just a couple of them, the oil looks fine, and it was not foamy under the oil cap, also it does not overheat and the coolant level is still the same as it was a few days ago when i first discoved the problem. my friend thinks it is still a head gasket problem but with the car acting very normal since it began running again i don't know what to think

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

ps i had not driven the car for two days before i discovered the dead battery and it sat for almost a week after i first tried to start it with no luck, if this helps

thanks,
josh

well....i'm not totally sure...but maybe ur car was just being tempermental....mine does that if i let it set for a couple days.....then when u pump the gas and she'll fire up. ur white smoke is from the execess gas being burnt....if it runs fine now....just leave her be.

The 95 Concorde 3.5 I had did that to me one time when I cranked the engine and then released the key before the engine started, when retrying to start it again it would act like it wanted to fire but wouldn't run (kind of like what a flooded engine did back in the carburetor days) and what I ended up doing when it did that was to press the accelerator to the floor and hold it while cranking the engine and the it would start very roughly and when it just started to rev release the accelerator and wait a few moments for it to smooth out. I only had this problem on cold starts only and really the only remedy was to not let go of the key on the first try when starting the car untill the engine starts, of course the low battery in your case didn't help you any.

thanks a lot, both pretty much confirmed what i thought. the whole head gasket thing was making me nervous

thanks