my car is in rough shape, its a 1989 chevy blazer

i got pulled over yesterday and the officer said i had smoke coming from the tailpipe.
had a friend look and he says im burning coolant. (claims to have a sweet smell that tipped him off) and its a lost cause. head gasket or worse.

i know nothing about cars but dont want to give it up as a lost cause if its a relatively easy fix.

i was running the AC on high when i was pulled over for this and since then it has not worked. (didnt work great before but after warming up it would kick on usually)

any ideas what might be the cause?

 

Head gaskets or cracked heads causing coolant to enter a cylinder typically manifests as lots of white smoke. This is usually caused by overheating the engine, and if something is wrong (like low on water) then running the A/C is one of the worst things you can do - it can cause the engine temperature to go sky high if the cooling system is compromised. Did you notice the temp gauge that day before the problem occurred? I think your friend is probably right on all counts. Repairs would most likely be very expensive. As far as the root cause, I'm sorry but that appears to be your driving the vehicle with the engine too hot.