Coolant leak on my LA-318 - what are my options?

[MoPar~Man]

I put this engine together about 30 years ago, the last time it ran was 2 months ago, it was in storage for about 20 years up until 2 years ago, and it did not leak a single drop of coolant all that time.

It was out of my car for the past 2 months as I changed the stub frame. During that time I re-painted it, cleaned up and painted the brackets and stuff. It is now back in the car, I'm re-connecting everything and filling all the fluids. Now I'm seeing that it's leaking coolant from between the block and the timing chain cover - the area in the blue circle below:

The yellow, purple and green bars are the 3 bolts holding the alternator mounting plate (triangle-shaped plate). The purple bolt is short, the other two are long and go into the block.

Coolant will pour out of the green bolt when I take it out, even if I drain the rad completely about 1 or 2 cups of coolant will come out of the green bolt hole. I don't recall if the yellow bolt hole will also do that or not.

I'm not familiar with the lay of the land in terms of what's going on behind the timing cover where it mates with the block, and why there is coolant there. When filling the rad, at a certain point coolant will just start seeping out of that joint in the blue circle. Naturally I'm really pissed about this. I tried wrapping the green and yellow bolts with teflon tape:

But coolant still weeps out of the blue area.

What are my options here? Do I have to tear this down and replace the timing cover gasket (and the water pump gasket) ?

I see that Felpro has a gasket set that includes something called "Sleeve 'N' Seal".

Victor Reinz has a gasket set "with Repair Sleeve".

What are these sleeves and why do they need to be repaired or sealed?

 

[Big_John]

If you are leaking from the gasket, there really is no cure except to pull it apart, clean it up and install new gaskets.

The teflon tape isn't the stuff to use to seal the bolts. That's more for tapered pipe threads. I like Permatex #1 or #2 to seal threads, but others have their favorites. That said, I don't remember if those threads go into the water jacket or not, so you may not need or want to do anything to seal the bolts.

 

[PH27L7]

Both of those bolts go into the water jacket. Would definitely replace the gasket, water can get into the oil there if it's also leaking on other side of gasket. Fortunately not a huge job.

 

[Big_John]

I see that Felpro has a gasket set that includes something called "Sleeve 'N' Seal".

Victor Reinz has a gasket set "with Repair Sleeve".

What are these sleeves and why do they need to be repaired or sealed?

I wanted to double check before I posted, but it is what I thought and they are a sleeve to press onto the crankshaft to repair any wear or rough spots where the front oil seal is.

So, unless you have wear at that spot, you don't need it.

 

[MoPar~Man]

I might need to get a new water pump. I'm looking at rockauto for 1967 Dodge polara 318. For the hell of it, I also look at 1973 plymouth satellite (my poor derelict satellite) because I'm curious about something. Why are these pumps so different? What changed on the 318? My block is actually 1978, but I do have the correct 1967 water pump (top photo). Timing covers have changed over time?

 

[413]

The lower hose is on the other side. Yes timing covers change because timing marks change sides also.

 

[Big_John]

The bypass hose is smaller on the earlier pumps.
Earlier is cast iron and later is aluminum.
Earlier uses 5/8" heater hose and later uses 5/8" and 1/2". Heater and bypass hose outlets are cast into the later pumps rather than using fittings.
IIRC, the earlier pump is about 1" shorter too.
As already mentioned, timing marks and lower outlet are different sides.