HELP! Oil loss in 300E.

[Esquire]

I have a 1991 300E with about 129,000 miles on the clock. The car starts and runs flawlessly. Not a single puff of smoke from anything.

However, I have noticed that I am using up about a quart of oil about every month - about 1200 miles combined city/highway. The oil cap is tight, and the only leak I can find is a small oil one in the front of the engine just under the distributor cap area. I hear that this is a common place for this motor to leak. This car leaves no oil spots - but there is a bit of oil on the underplate.

Is the little leak the likely cause of the quart per month headache? One mechanic told me that he felt is was the valve seals which were leaking (but there is NO smoking - at ANY time) and possibly the head gasket was bad (the coolant is perfect, and NOT contaminated with oil). I ran screaming from his shop!

Actually, have any Mercedes bretheren had this problem before? Any ideas on what it might be or have a possible fix solution from the others? It seems like it may be expensive!