I like to use Permatex Super 300 brush-on liquid sealer to coat gaskets such as for the water pump, timing cover, and other thin paper gaskets. I use yellow trim cement to stick gaskets like the valve cover and the oil pan side rails down before bolting them into place, usually on one side only. It's not really necessary for sealing, it just makes the oil pan and valve cover easier to install. Ditto for the side cover, especially if it's one of the tall ones with the small cork circles around the spark plug holes.

Head gaskets- - - - -solid metal ones need some brush-on sealant to help seal water, not compression. Put a sandwich-type gasket on dry, but be sure both surfaces are completely clean and free of debris. I use anti-sieze compound on all bolts that are torqued, rod and main bearings, head bolts, etc. Cam & lifter lube- - - - -either use what the cam grinder supplies, or lithium-additive grease such as Lubriplate to coat the cam lobes and lifter bottoms. Another good break-in lube for a cam is lightweight grease with a Molybdenum Disulfide additive. Always do a 20-minute breakin of a new cam at 2,000 RPM or so to assure plenty of oil thrown off the crankshaft to flood the cam with lube while it's establishing a running fit with the lifters.
Jerry

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt!
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!