[aussiblue]

Generally any of the guru's at the gasket companies these days will tell you to use the gasket as supplied, and will refuse warranty if anything extra is found to have been used

Logic bring that if the gasket company thinks any extra sealant will be needed, they'll apply it themselves so they can claim responsibility instead of hoping the end user uses the correct supplementary sealant

Yes; but the first available MLS gaskets in the market that I saaw were just plain riveted together layers of bare metal and I was not the only one using a fine coating of aluminium sprays with them and it was also recommended by many of the manufacturers in those early MLS days. These days most MLS gaskets comes coated with a .001" thick viton rubber or similar that is bonded to the outer stainless steel layers.