I'm telling you from experience that this thing can leak a lot of oil if the surface is not cleaned correctly before reseating the gasket. My 81 (just sold) had a major leak back there that I thought was major, changed the gasket but did not wire brush the seat first. Well where the old oil had leaked through it had burned onto the head and subsequently I could not get the gasket to seal well and it started dumping major amounts of oil on a long trip.
I then pulled the valve cover and cleaned that surface with a brush and the car has no leaks now. I don't think the head gasket as a usual leaking spot is necessarily true.

__________________
'99 S420 - Mommies
'72 280SE 4.5 - looking to breathe life into it
'84 300SD Grey - Sold
'85 300SD Silver - Sold
'78 Ski Nautique