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Yeah, the coolant smell with hang around for a long time. I know I have no leaks but I still get a wiff every now and then in the garage (had major leak 3 months back).
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She overheated on me again Saturday, so I filled it up with water then limped home and parked it, took the other car for the trip I was leaving for
Last night was the first time I had a chance to crawl under to see what was happening. It seems coolant is leaking from the top of the water pump. I am currently at 154k miles, the water pump was changed at 110k miles and I used the stronger gasket during the change. So now I am not sure if the gasket failed, or if the pump failed, or if I cracked the block. I wont know anymore until I pull everything out Saturday and Sunday. I checked the oil this morning and there was no indication of coolant there. It only leaks when the car is running. This could get very expensive.
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If it only leaks when running I would think that would mean a leaky pump, but obviously I am probably wrong.
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Leaky pump would be awesome
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After some investigation we noticed that the lower hose was not getting hot meaning there was no coolant flowing. When I did the timing belt 40K miles ago we did not change the thermostat. So we figured the cheapest easiest fix would be replacing the thermostat. Well Saturday I spent 9 hours trying to change it. The lower bolt would not budge, I ended up stripping the shit out of the bolt head. I used pb blaster, heat, 4 different pair of vice grips, sockets designed for rounded heads and couldn't move it. Sunday I spent a few more hours then gave up. My last resort was grinding the bolt head off and replacing the bolt but I wanted to hold off on that for a 2nd opinion. My buddy came over yesterday and took a look. After an hour messing with the same shit I tried and a few more sockets we broke out the grinder. Once we took the bolt head off, we unthreaded the bolt by hand. The head was corroded to the thermostat housing and would not fucking budge.
So we replaced the therm, fired it up and within a few minutes the temp was high and the lower hose was still cool, no flow through. I am figuring the water pump is blocked or dead. Unless anyone has any other opinions
Symptoms:
over heating
after a few minutes of running a leak develops between the water pump and the block
leak goes away when engine is not running (pressure building up, causing leak)
new thermostat
lower hose stays cold
never put any leak stop in the coolant
water pump changed 40K miles ago
when refilling with coolant I could hear and see the coolant filling into the upper reservoir
no other noticeable leaks in the system
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Remember that if there is an air bubble anywhere in the system, coolant will not flow. Whenever I drain the coolant, I have to top off the turbo-top coolant tank (cold) with a few ounces a couple of times before all of the air is purged. If you are continually topping off that tank, you still have a leak.
I'd like to suggest taking the belt off the water pump and spinning it to try and hear sloshing, but then I remembered it's the timing belt, so definitely not worth the trouble. I can't imagine the water pump failing in any way other than developing a leak, so let's just pretend it's still working. Was the coolant super dirty/rusty when you first drained it?
I wrote all that, and then I read your post. 
If you are certain that the leak is coming from the water pump, and not some hose or fitting above or around it, or the t-stat cover, then you probably have to take it off and see what's what. Try to preserve the gasket as you remove it; it is usually quite obvious if there was coolant leaking out of the gasket.
How are your rad hoses, btw? They are two layers, and occasionally tear on the inner layer and leak through the layers out the cut end, all the while 'looking' like a whole hose. The upper one is usually the culprit, but then you would see fresh coolant spatter on the timing belt cover/rad. I should have changed my lower hose with my rad, but didn't. Now I'm adding a few ounces of coolant every 2-3 months, NBD really.
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The rad hoses are still solid, although they are the original hoses with 154K miles on them.
Kind of hard to see the bypass hoses but there is no evidence of the leak being above the water pump. this is becoming a nightmare. 
has been on jack stands for a week now. 
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Well, if you're sure it's coming from the water pump, then I think you know what has to happen. It's possible that during your battle with the t-stat bolt you caused some collateral damage to the water pump gasket. When I did mine, the original pump looked fine. I lapped the sealing surface on a flat steel plate and just used the paper gasket and some light gasket maker goop. Same with the t-stat cover. That one needed more lapping to get it flat...
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Managed to pull all the plugs today to try a compression test. Got everything set up, then found out my battery is shot. Can't even turn the fucking thing over. Not a happy camper today. I may just change the plugs and put it all back together.
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Compression test complete
#1 145
#2 168
#3 145
#4 165
From what I have seen 145 seems normal. What does 165 on the other side mean?
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Normal, +20
Universe is really testing your patience recently, huh? At least it's not an obviously blown head gasket, right?
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With those numbers I would assume no blown head gasket. I pulled the radiator today and flushed that, flow though it seemed fine. At this point I am still leaning towards a dead water pump. It should arrive on Thursday. In the mean time I will have everything torn apart and ready for the new timing belt and water when they arrive. Keeping my fingers crossed for a fully functioning 
by this weekend.
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Nightcrawler wrote:
Keeping my fingers crossed for a fully functioning
I'm sure we're all with you on this one... 
My money's still on the gasket leaking coolant when it's running, and sucking in air when it cools. I'd send you a BNIB pump, but it's for an NA.
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Everything should be delivered tonight, and installed tomorrow night
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Water pump and timing belt installed. We found 2 things, neither of them having to do with the initial leak. #1 the t-belt was worn because there is a guide that sits above the center roller. We installed the guide too close to the belt causing damage. The new belt came with a spacer so that is all good. #2 The last time the belt was changed, every was not line up perfectly, slightly off by a few teeth. This time we nailed it perfectly, it seems to be pulling a little stronger now. That feeling could also be caused by me driving the rail so much over the last few weeks.
After the shake down drive Saturday I came home and found a slight larger coolant drip. I don't have time to keep climbing under it, so I made an appointment at my friend's garage for Wed, so they can find and fix it.
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Wow, that sucks. 
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