93 Park Avenue white smoke

[KRA]

Sparked up the Park Avenue to get her ready for the winter and noticed a couple things.
1) A slow cranking engine with a fully charged battery. (seemed like some hydraulic action happening in the engine. The car has been sitting for the last 6 months.
2) White smoke at inital start up then seemed to stop as engine warmed up.
3) Runs a littel rough at the initial start up.

My question is how can I tell if it is a head gasket or the stove pipe EGR valve I 've read about on the web. If it is the head gasket, how big of job is for an average mechanically inclined guy? If it is the plenum problem are the Plenom rebuild kits a good fix?
There doesn't appear to be any noticable amount of antifreeze getting into the engine as the oil looks fine.

thanks for the help.

[McLin]

Originally Posted by KRA

Sparked up the Park Avenue to get her ready for the winter and noticed a couple things.
1) A slow cranking engine with a fully charged battery. (seemed like some hydraulic action happening in the engine. The car has been sitting for the last 6 months.
2) White smoke at inital start up then seemed to stop as engine warmed up.
3) Runs a littel rough at the initial start up.

My question is how can I tell if it is a head gasket or the stove pipe EGR valve I 've read about on the web. If it is the head gasket, how big of job is for an average mechanically inclined guy? If it is the plenum problem are the Plenom rebuild kits a good fix?
There doesn't appear to be any noticable amount of antifreeze getting into the engine as the oil looks fine.

thanks for the help.

I have a 91 PA with first gen 3.8 V6 and have the same symptoms, but I replace all necessary fluids, and spark plugs, include wires, and all work fine... All 1000 kilometers i must put a little water into the recovery bottle, but no since of fault headgasket.

The white smoke I think comes from water in the exhaust, and if the engine and exhaust is warm up all the water is gone...