You're right, if you take it off you might as well put a new gasket on. Hopefully the mating surfaces are still good and will seal fine with just the paper gasket and the V6 pump. Do you have forced induction plans for the future? I was thinking a V8 swap, with the SRT ecu to see boost and a low boost turbo would be all the power one might need with the V8. Not that you would necessarily "need" more power.