3.1 leaking coolant, shop did shitty work?

[gg22re]

My girlfriend has a '97 lumina with the 3.1 in it, about ~5 months ago the water pump went, she took it to a shop and they overcharged her like usual. Anyway now it's spewing coolant again from the same general area. I'm thinking it's just the water pump gasket again, but the shop is telling me it's the timing cover gasket. I don't know where any of the coolant passages are on these engines but does that sound plausible?

Just looking for opinions, I might do the work myself but, transverse engines.. ugh. haha.

[60dgrzbelow0]

If you are online today... this Chilton's Manual covers your vehicle and others and is up for bidding on eBay over the next four hours or so (7:30 PM Now...on Monday, May 17th, 2000). It helps to have a basic shop manual that covers the essentials on any car...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chilton-Manual-97-00-Century-Regal-Lumina-Grand-Prix-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem255a95a45aQQitemZ160433546330QQptZMotorsQ5fManualsQ5fLiterature

[GM Collector]

Whatever it is, do the work yourself, these engines are super easy to work on.

[ProX]

It's not that hard to figure out if a 3.1's water pump is leaking or if the timing cover is leaking.

On a side note, I have heard of some w/p seals that failed due to using the wrong coolant. The seals were designed around the coolant the engine came with. Some coolants have different compounds that react differently to certain seals, so make sure to use the death cool... err I mean Dex Cool.

[Daguse5853Z]

i changed my water pump out and they gave me a paper gasket. well it didnt take long to start leaking so yesterday i tore it apart and just used permatex "the right stuff". it's twice as thick as rtv, almost like tar. works great on alot of applications. make sure you get the can with the aerosol or else you'll need a caulking gun.

[86FieroSEv6]

Could it be the o-ring for the bypass pipe? Or, and we all hope it ain't so, could it be the intake gasket leaking? I say this because it is actually quite rare for the timing cover to leak unless somebody was recently in the timing chain and didn't seal/torque it properly.

[ProX]

Could it be the o-ring for the bypass pipe? Or, and we all hope it ain't so, could it be the intake gasket leaking? I say this because it is actually quite rare for the timing cover to leak unless somebody was recently in the timing chain and didn't seal/torque it properly.

Or it has a zillion miles on it like the wife's car that is leaking at the timing cover.

[3400-95-Modified]

I've never needed anymore than the paper gasket...

Actually this time around when I did my motor I tried to use as little RTV as possible since you never see it on a stock engine and they typically go a while before producing leaks... Every time before when I've gooped up the oil pan gasket it would start leaking on me. This year I left it clean and only put RTV on the corners where the front hoop is and the rear main hoop.