Hi I have a 97 cherokee se with ax15. Every time I start white smoke comes out and is usually has a hard time starting. Could it be the head or just the headgasket. Thanks

 

had the some thing with mine when i bought it....
i'm guessing it had been sitting a while...idled rough and the white shyt out the tailpipe
tossed in a bottle of gas treatment and let her sit idling for 30 minutes or so a couple of times (in the cold winter temps). haven't seen the smoke since. I'm guessing while still with the PO it sat for a while and either got some condensation in the tank or in the muffler and running it up to temp a couple of times boiled it out

not sure of your situation, but thought i'd mention it just in case it's similar

 

Are you losing any coolant? Is there coolant in your oil, or oil in your coolant?

Does it smoke constantly or just until it warms up?

If you're really concerned, you can rent a tester from a parts store and see what kind of compression you're getting from each cylinder. You can also pressure test your cooling system to see if its holding pressure.

There's a chance your hard starts are related, but there's just as good of a chance that it has nothing to do with it. Can you describe what your jeep is doing when you're trying to start it, and what troubleshooting you have already done?

 

I am looking coolant and can sometimes Smell it. When I start up and till warm so like 2 mins it will smoke when I hit ye throttle. I did a compression test on the radiator and there was a loss of pressure.

 

Id replace the headgasket before you have something more serious to replace.