Coolant leaking badly, but none in oil
 

1997 f150 Sons truck. He noticed it running hot early last week and added water as it was at least two gallons low. Drove it for a couple more days and he noticed a stain under it at a friends house, added water again and drove home about 10 miles. Once home we could see a constant stream of water pouring down. The trucks been parked for a week now. Today I started searching here for answers and am confused on what i'm finding. I squeezed the upper radiator hose and it began leaking, crawled under and it appears its coming from the timing chain cover on the passenger side up by the freeze plug. Freeze plug is dry as is the water pump gasket. I drained about a quart of oil but there is no water at all in the oil. As bad as it leaks this seems wrong from what I've read. I have looked at the top of the motor and it looks dry although I haven't really dug around much on top as I'm not sure where to look. Can the timing chain cover gasket leak that badly without getting into the oil? If not where's the next place to look? Thanks in advance for any help.

Yes it sure can.

well,, I guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend then. O'Reilly's has the gasket kit in stock. Now all I need is the inspiration.
Thanks

You mean "motivation".

I told my 16 year old son, the trucks owner, to not let us stop tonight until we had the timing chain cover off, re-gasketed and back on. We got it broke loose on the top and loose at the oil pump, but it doesn't want to break free. I told him let's wait until morning and go back through everything to make sure we have everything loose. We've been following a write up from another forum and I have no reason to doubt the info, but we are working on a different year truck and some things have been slightly different, so better safe then sorry. Hopefully tomorrow things will go a little quicker. I had him go get parts today and he committed on how expensive it was. Unknown to me at the time, he had asked his Mom why we just didn't take it to a shop. I think he now has a better perspective of the cost of paying for work you can do yourself with a little knowledge, searching and time.

How hard was the front cover to change? I have a 1997 f150 with a 4.2 and is leaking coolant out the passenger side of the front cover as well. No coolant in oil. I have stop leak holding back the leak . Thank you