It's not necessary but if you got yourself a can of gasket cinch made by Edelbrock you can paint the head side of that gasket and the intake face of the head ,wait for it to tack up... and then stick it onto the head using the locators... then just use a little rvt on the face of each water crossover 'intake side' only unless you have pitted heads, then put some on before the gasket is set ...and of course a dollop in each corner and under the cork.