Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions. I was hoping for some sort of consensus from the forum, but so far that hasn't occurred. Additional input is appreciated.

I spent $750 on the head (included old-style straight prechambers, valves, cam holders/bearings, hydraulic lifters, and he unexpectedly threw in the valve cover). It did not come with the cam or injectors. So in one sense that is a reasonable price, but at the same time, I bought the whole car 6 months ago in quite decent condition for $2500.

I sent several emails (prior to the purchase) to the seller prior to the purchase where we discussed flatness requirements for an MB head as well as cracks. I never explicitly asked about erosion of the head surface, and he never explicitly claimed it didn't have any erosion. He said it was not warped and had no cracks. Prior to the purchase, I said as long as it can be machined less than 0.5 mm (the max) and meet MB flatness specs, I am good. But clearly it cannot meet MB flatness specs with small erosion holes.

The seller has perfect ratings on ebay and I still assume he didn't mislead me intentionally. He may have simply not noticed the damage or perhaps subconsciously chose to not see them. He never cleaned the head, so maybe he never really inspected it much. He did NOT make any claims about the casting number. He openly admitted that he had no way to know which casting it is.

According to the FSM, you can remove at most 0.5 mm from this head (0.02"). I will have to look into whether that is already accounting for thicker head gaskets. Thanks for that suggestion.

I suspect something like JB weld to fill the holes would end up being okay, but doing such an expensive repair and having to rely on JB weld is a bit disappointing.

Thanks again for the suggestions. I really want this to work out.

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1968 220D, w115, /8, OM615, Automatic transmission.
My 1987 300TD wagon was sold and my 2003 W210 E320 wagon was totaled (sheds tear).