There has to be a gasket or you would have had an awful racket coming from the pipe to head interface. The stock gasket is a graphite impregnated stainless steel mesh that is not all that apparent when the pipe is removed as it would be very compressed at this point. Use a right angle pick to clean out the pipe seating area in the head (which should be a right angle machined pocket-no taper) and I believe you will find the stock gasket is still there.
I'm not sure why Morgan used the spacer. Perhaps to avoid over crushing the mesh gasket? The first time I removed my pipe for polishing I left off the spacer and using the James ring type gaskets I had no issues at all.
