water was leaking from under the engine, from right in the middle of the alternator but from the engine, hard to find the exact spot. do new water pumps / thermostats leak a little in the beginning?
sloop said something about a bleeder hole on the thermostat, hopefully mine isnt in the 6 o clock position, because I didn't even realize it mattered?
The leak was like on a faucet at a very low setting when its just a 1 drop complete line, but then you lower it and its a broken line. then it became 1 drop every 1/2 second or so after I had the engine running for like 30 minutes. the coolant level barely changed so far...
let me know if I need to tear the sucker apart and check that thermostat position. i'm really happy the timing belt job was almost a complete success, i'd be 100% if there was no leak.

 

Thermostat position has nothing to do with a leak. As for the water pump, did it have a metal gasket or paper? I've heard that if the waterpump housing has a rough finish where it mates to the engine block and a metal gasket is used, they tend to leak. It would need a paper gasket to seal.

 

Either you missed bits of the old waterpump gasket or the t-stat o-ring is pinched or in wrong.

Most likely the t-stat. What did you install into the block first, the o-ring or the t-stat?

 

i put the o ring on the thermostat and then installed it... the water pump had a paper gasket, and i used a small amount of gasket goop on both sides of the gasket...

 

Not a fan of gasket goop. Not necessary and just makes a mess.

For t-stat, it sounds like you have the stat seated against the block (hopefully with the little valve at 6 O'clock), then the o-ring, then the housing. If so, that is correct.

If the housing is not set back onto the block correctly, it can **** to the side and pinch the o-ring.

 

i put it in exactly like i took the old one out. but I may have the bleed hole in the wrong spot because I didn't even realize that was important and that there was one. There is a 50/50 chance its at 12o clock or 6o clock... and I made sure the old gasket surface from the water pump on the engine block was clean (but it was still discolored to dark grey/brown) I applied the gasket sealant directly to the surface and it was clean the whole way. I also applied it directly to the water pump surface and then put the gasket on the water pump, it helped keep it in the correct position...

This morning I ran the engine till it was at normal operating temps, and then put the ac on (my ac fan doesn't want to work anymore, this summer it was humming like a generator) and held the rpms at around 3K and I finally tested full WOT and nothing broke, then the leak stopped. While the engine was warming up it was 1 drop per second... Now its completely stopped. Perhaps the o ring heated up and finally sealed everything? or maybe when I had the car in service position I pulled the lower coolant hose out of the block a little (but I doubt that, it does look a little wet, but I cant tell if its oil or what)...

actually neither of the electric fans turned on at all today, engine oil was a tiny bit above 200degrees and coolant was at center and I was revving it from 3K for a minute and then boosts to WOT, and none of the fans turned on with the ac on lo/lo...

ohh and when i was warming up the car (so the coolant would be at center) I was holding the rpms at 2k but something kept turning on and rpms would lower about 150-200rpms and then when it turned off it would go up 150-200rpms, what does that? it does it almost all the time, i noticed that before too when the water pump was going bad, but sometimes it didn't do that at all...

 

Check valve in thermostat needs to be a 12 o'clock, not 6 o'clock, to purge the air bubble or air pocket out of the thermostat area when filling the cooling system.

 

Could have been you AC compressor if it was on. If the fans are dead, the system builds up too much pressure and shuts down the AC compressor. Once the refrigerant pressure pressure drops, the AC compressor kicks back on. That's most likely why you keep seeing the RPMs drop and raise.

 

If you didn't get the t-stat housing seated correctly (or you cracked it--ask how I know) you could have a slow, intermittent leak in that area. The water pump is further over--this sounds like the t-stat, housing, or even the hose onto the housing.
It is possible--just barely--to check below the housing without disassembly. Spot flashlight and a mirror; check the "pocket area" just below the t-stat end of the housing for a small dribble. You're more likely to see it as the car's cooling down.

 

i'm sure the thermostat was seated correctly, just not sure that the bleed hole is in the 12 o clock position... I bled the system twice already... so if any air was in there it should be out by now, I'll probably bleed it again just to be sure. the leak is very very very slow now. there was like a tablespoon worth of water on the floor after a 10 mile drive and letting the car rest for like 2 hours... (it wasn't leaking when i parked, but then I checked after 2 hours and there was a tablespoon worth of water on the ground in that spot where it was leaking). I guess I'll do service position again, and have a look, service position takes about 10-15 minutes for me. but that will be in 2-3 days...