I bought my 98 SL2 less than a year ago from a local used car dealer
here in WV. It had 119,000 miles on it, and drove very smooth. I
THOUGHT I did my homework. I did a CarFax report on it, came up
perfectly clean. I took it to a good mechanic BEFORE I bought it who
told me it was in excellent condition.

Well, I drove the car from WV to FL, because thats where I go to
college, and when I get there I see there is no oil left in the car. I
had just gotten rid of an older car that burnt oil like crazy, so I
didnt really think much of it other than to fill it up and watch what
happens. Well it didnt leak, I never saw it burn in the exhaust, the
only connection I could make is that it only appeared to lose oil when
I drove long distances. Yet it still seemed somewhat random. This
summer, I drove 3 hours to go camping to find the oil empty, filled it
back up, and on the drive back no oil had burnt at all.

In the past few weeks it seems to be losing oil faster than usual, and
the coolant light in the dash is coming on about 75% of the time the
car is driving. So, last night I got online and started looking up the
problem and found out about the whole "cracked cylinder head" (?)
situation, and needless to say, it shocks me. It fits my situation
perfectly, and I did indeed find oil inside the coolant.

I am a college student, and barely have enough money for gas, let alone
an in depth engine job like this. The dealer I got it from will most
likely be of no help, and since I don't really know what im talking
about when it comes to cars, I dont want to get screwed over on this.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with this...
1) I want to make sure that it is indeed a cracked cylinder...is this
possible without pulling the engine out entirely?
2) What exactly should I tell the service people so that they dont try
to charge me for some extraneous costs and/or fix the proper thing?
3)I've heard that Saturn's Customer Service can be finaggled into
paying for some of the bill for this, since its was *almost* a recall.
Is this true? and how can I pull it off?
4) Is there anywhere, perhaps other than a commercial repair manual,
that I might be able to find more information about this problem with
the engine? Ive seen the words "cylinder head" and "head gasket" used
almost interchangably when talking of this problem, and Id like to know
what the difference is, if any.

Other than this, the car runs pretty well for a used car...the "lock"
button on the drivers side went out, and the back passenger side power
window seems to have died...and my reverse lights...but those all seem
fairly trivial. Anyway, any help I could get on this would be greatly
appreciated...im hoping to make this car last at least another 3 years!
Hope its possible!