The Bentley book says to use vasoline between the gasket, block and pump. Haynes says use RTV sealant. Any suggestions

 

My Haynes manual says "a smear of grease". Go for the Vaseline.

 

which is cheaper?

 

I have always used 3M spray adhesive to bond the paper gasket to the pump and put a bead of RTV in the groove for the top seal, squish the top seal in and use the residual that squishes out to smear across the top of the same seal and smear some inside of the hole that the by-pass pipe and gasket will go into. The wet RTV serves as much as an assembly lubricant as it does a sealant when it cures. Gluing the gasket to the pump simply facilitates the assembly and future disassembly when this pump craps out on you too.

Mark