Do I put anything on the oil pan gasket? I am buying the cheap cork rubber multi piece one from Auto Zone if that makes a difference. Do I rub engine oil on it do I soak it in motor oil? This is going on an old pan and old block if that helps.

 

update for the silent majority

thank you everyone who read my post, I ended up using the magical WD-40 to clean my oil pan and a razor blade to scrape up the 20 year old gasket, there was a nice inch or so of sludge but the oil looked good otherwise, no water in it, no metal shavings either

because I was mounting the pan from underneath, on one side of the pan I put some motor oil on my finger and rubbed it on the gasket and the block to get it to stick but it did not, the other side of the pan went on dry (this is going to be an experiment to see if it leaks or not) and like my friend Bob the gear head used to say if it leaks oil that means there's oil in her, or PLS, Pavement Lubrication System

as far as torquing the oil pan bolts, my Haynes manual says 5/16 inch to 12 ft lbs, and 1/4 inch to 8 ft lbs, I don't know what they are smoking as my bolts were 7/16 on the sides, and two 1/2 inch each on front and back, so I torqued all of them to 12 ft lbs, and got a feeling that may have been too tight, so I'm filing this under lessoned learned

here's some pics of the before and after shots

 

The 5/16 and 1/4 inch bolts are refering to the size of the bolts as mesured by the threads and lenght not the size of the wrench or socket used to remove are install the bolts

 

As for as what to use on the oil pan gasket, I have had great success using RTV orange high temp silcone. Spread a small amount on the flange of the oil pan, lay the gasket in place, let it set for about 10 to 15 minutes so that it can hold the gasket in place. Next get your oil pan in position to install on the engine then apply a thin coat of RTV on top of the gasket.This way all the RTV will stay on the gasket and not get rubbed off while trying to get the oil pan in position to install. Put a little extra RTV in each coner of the pan and a small amount on the end of the pan where the end seals are. That should give you a leak free oil pan.