Chrysler Repair: oil in coolant, cylinder head bolts, head gasket leak

Question
 My engine light came on so I checked my fluid levels oil was low so I refilled it then I checked the coolant and it seems to have oil in it. Is it the head gasket? how much is it and how difficult is it to replace or approximate cost of repair.

Answer
Hi Dave,
Any time you find oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil (sludge/foam) or excessive white smoke (water vapor) coming out the tail pipe when starting up the car from cold, or bubbling sounds in the coolant system, you have interconnection between the coolant/oil/combustion chambers which most likely is a head gasket leak, but could be a metal crack  (which is unlikely unless the engine overheated badly). I have had some luck when it was water out the tail pipe in fixing that by retorqueing the cylinder head bolts, but oil leaking across probably means a frank break in the gasket rather than leakage under the gasket. The difficulty of the repair depends upon the accessibility of the cylinder head where the leak is, how many other things need to be removed to get the head off.
I don't have a good idea of the costs for various engines that might be involved here because I have always done it myself. But the range seems to be $500-1,000. If you have the tools and interest it can be done by an amateur with the aid of a good manual.
I can look into the difficulty question if you were to tell me the engine that is involved, based probably on reading the manuals. The only Chrysler engine I have replaced the gasket on is a 2.5 in-line 4-cyl non-turbo in our '89 LeBaron coupe.
That was fairly straightforward but still requires a manual and having tools and experience to do it successfully.
Roland