Volkswagen Repair: frothy oil, cloudy appearance, head gasket

Question
I have a 1988 Volkswagon Fox. I bought it used, it runs pretty well, except that it loses power when going uphill. I went to my mechanic to get an oil change, he took one look at the oil in the engine, and said I have a cracked head, so I should just junk the car. The oil in the case looks tan and frothy, the oil on the dipstick looks fairly clear and brown (like oil should look) Besides the going up hill power loss, I dont have any other problems with the engine that I'm aware of. The car does have other issues though. but those seem to be mainly related to the electrical system, and I need an alignment. My question is, do I REALLY have a cracked head? When I first bought the car (Sept 2002) the oil looked like this, and I just took it and got it changed, it ran fine. I do go very long time between oil changes, as I put fewer than 2500 miles on my car per year. Thank you for any advice you can give me!

Answer
Oil should be amber but remain clearish so that the shine of the diipstick shows thru.  If your is more like a paint, you got a problem.  How long (months)between oil changes?  If it takes a year to do a change it may very well be moisture from the air.  It also depends on how far you drive when you take the car out as you need about 5 miles in one direction just to drive the moisture out of the oil.  If you drive less than that, the moisture will remain in the oil and it gets a cloudy appearance.  Standard or automatic.  Maybe the clutch is slipping or the bands need adjusting.   Get someone to do a compression test on the engine.   Are you losing antifreeze or is the coolant getting oily?  If so, most likely something is wrong there, but it could just be a leaking head gasket.  Otherwise look to the salvage yards for a used head if you need to go that route.