I just replaced the water pump and it's all sealed uup nice and tight. I'm still leaking elsewhere. I've noticed it pooling up behind the water pump on what I guess is the timiing chain cover. It is on the side opposite of the thermostat housing. Would this be comming out of the intake?
I checked around that and it was dry. It seems to be on the opposite side of that anyways. I opened the hood and looked right over the right side (looking from front of car) of the pump and the coolant was puddled there. There wasn't any on the thermostat side.
Check that t-stat housing real good- this happened to me too, and the puddle was on both sides. Sometimes the coolant will travel around a bit, and it will dry when the engine gets hot too, so it's tough to pinpoint the source- I would replace the t-stat gasket just to eliminate that possibility. It worked for me (had to use a felpro gasket with a sticky side). If it still leaks, it could be the lower intake?
I have ran into this on my car and several other 302's. I don't know if it is for a differnt configuration water pump or what, but our timing covers have like an extra little bolt hole right in the corner where you are talking about. No bolt passes through our water pumps into it. But mine and a few others I have seen sprung a little leak int he back of the timing cover there where the metal is kinda thin. I took my timing cover off before I found this little pin hole. I had the same symptoms coolant would just pool up in that little valley behind the water pump ontop of the timing cover. Ended up fixing mine with a dab of liquid steel. The other two I have seen do this you could put your finger down there and feel the little hole. we just cleaned them up really good and and dabbed some liquid steel over them let it set up and presto no more leak. Not saying this is definently your problem , but it is something good to check.