I JUST REPLACED THE TIMING CHAIN AND GEARS ALSO NEW WATER PUMP ON MY 1992 DAKOTA 3.9 V6. I WAS FILLING THE RADIATOR AND NOTICED IT WAS TAKING AN UNUSUAL AMOUNT OF WATER .I THEN FOUND THE OIL PAN TO BE FULL OF WATER.I WAS CAREFUL WHEN I INSTALLED THE GASKETS EVEN USING SEALER ON THE LONG BOLTS THAT MOUNTED THE WATER PUMP.I TORE IT BACK DOWN THE ONLY THING ODD WAS ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE FRONT OF THE BLOCK THE THIRD SCREW HOLE WAS POURING OUT WATER AND I MAY NOT HAVE USED SEALER ON THAT BOLT. HELP!!!

 

Moved to the correct section.

 

I assume you drained all the water. I would put the plug in and pour a can of cheap oil in and rotate the motor manually just to make sure it doesn't start rusting then drain it out. I wouldn't refill it with oil until you figure pout how coolant got into the oil jacket. As I recall when I did my TC and WP one of the holes also dripped coolant for a while. Did that hole drip water when you took it off? I think you got one of the bolts out of sequence. In my FSM there are 7 bolts total. I don't see any mention of the differing lengths of the bolts.

 

That 3rd. hole down flowed quite a bit of water out of the block as soon as i removed the cover.the bolt is long enough and should stop the water even though i didn't coat the threads.I just can't see any logical reason there was so much water in the oil pan .It was if I put the hose in the valve cover.

 

Is there a gasket down there between the TC cover and the Oil pan? I can't remember but the idea just struck me. If you had the wrong bolt in, it could have run right through the pump into the TC cover and into the pan.

 

Yes there is a thick rubber gasket it is in good condition. I reinstalled the timing cover really cleaning the surface .the only water going thru the cover are the large round holes where the long bolts go. This time i put sealer on every bolt tightenrd down cover evenly .every thing looked good and sealed cover completely against the block.i then mounted the water pump the three remaining bolts are the same size four large and three shorter.i then put the radiator in removed the oil pan bolt and proceeded to add water to the radiator.looked underneath and water was gushing from the oil pan.this thing has really got me puzzled.the water route from the pump thru the timing cover back into the block looks really sealed good.i don;t quite follow you on the wrong bolt.

 

On the bolt I was thinking maybe you got a short one where a longer one should go and its catching enough thread to convince you its in the right spot. Some of those bolt holes go through the water jacket. IDK if I am right. Have you thought about asking a dealer?

 

Well there are 4 long bolts three shorter bolts of these three one is on the top and has no effect the other two are on the bottom and when the pump is bolted onto the cover you can just see where they come thru the cover.it seem to me that the only way water can get into the oil is from the large holed which they 4 long bolts go thru. Any other place would be an external water leak. I am going to the junkyard tomorrow and hopefully look at some of these. I really doubt the dealer will even want to discuss this old of a vehicle.

 

I just had a bad thought. You didn't say why you changed the WP but I figured since you did the TC and how old it is it was probably because it needed doing. But if it had overheated before you replaced the WP maybe the block cracked?

 

No it was running and didn't overheat .i was having a problem with the engine missing and backfiring sometimes.so i figured i would change the timing chain and like you said age of the water pump 200,000 miles.