Coolant Leak - Driver's Side

[Sweet Ride]

Hi all:

I walked up to my car tonight and had a rather large puddle of coolant underneath. I pulled the car into my shop and looked around for about half an hour with minimal results.

I pressure tested the cooling system and the leak is coming from the driver's side on the front of the engine. It doesn't look like the water pump. The leak goes between drippy and a steady stream under pressure. The coolant looks to be coming from behind the power steering bracket. Engine oil is normal and does not smell funny or look milky or frothy. Coolant loss was minimal. The exhaust is dry, so I don't think it's a head gasket.

I did a quick search for "coolant leaks" and it looks/sounds like the timing cover gasket.

And now the questions:
Is this a common problem? Do I need to get the gasket and cover, or will just the gasket fix the issue? How much time should I allot for this repair? Any special info I should know when replacing these parts? Any shortcuts? Anything else I should replace while I'm in there?

Car info:
97 GTS. Paxton Supercharger. 31,*** miles.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[99 R/T 10]

It would be my bet that it is the timing cover gasket. Not hard, but time consuming. Call Chuck Tator for more info. Do you have a Service manual?

 

[Sweet Ride]

Do you have a Service manual?

Viper life wouldn't be complete without it! However, in my experience the book doesn't always tell the whole story...

 

[Viper Wizard]

You have a voice mail.

 

[Sweet Ride]

You have a voice mail.

Thanks for the info in the conversation we had! It was very valuable.

Day 1 progress (last night): 3.5 hours in and the cover is almost off. Just need to get the oil filter housing off and the a/c bolts and then it's out. Without the Paxton, this job would probably be pretty easy...

But then what fun would driving be?

Back to work now. Hope to have it all done today.