Well, it wasn't the pump, anyone have any tips on doing the front seal. Is this soemthing I can do at home with the engine in?

Check your timing chain cover for a wear hole in it when you pull it to replace the seal and gasket. I actually had a chain and pulley wear enough (lotsa miles) to rub a hole on the bottom right side of the timing chain cover.

It is a pain-in the-butt compared to your fuel pump problem. As I recall the seal is in the timing cover. You gotta pull the harmonic balancer and water pump to get to it. I think a puller will fit with the engine in the car. While you have it off it's a good time to check the timing chain too, after 24 years it is likely stretched. I got a "Zoom" double roller timing set at Advanced Auto Parts recently for about 30 bucks or less. The seal kit should set you back under $10.00. The thin paper timing cover gasket in the kit looks like it should need some help from good "OEM" type silicon sealant during reassembly to keep it from leaking.

Have a good fun weekend!!!

Dave

Yep, you'll need the harmonic balancer off, for which you will need a puller/installer tool. I ended up making a puller and installer when i did mine. I replaced the crank seal with the front cover out of the engine, so had to pull the water pump out too. I have an idea that you can get the crank seal done without actually removing the front cover, but you'll need a special seal remover tool (or make something up) since obviously the crank nose will be poking through the seal if you do it with the cover in situ. Then a long tube to tap the new seal in with.
In all honesty it might be better to take the cover off, but you might well need to drop the sump a little (certainly on a small block, don't know what yours is) so you can see the jobs kind of pile up.
What with cleaning up the oil splash and stripping everything down, it took me several hours to do this job. But you have to keep your oil in, so time to grit the old teeth and plough into it!

To replace the front seal in the car,pull the fan,pulleys,vibration dampner,from under the car use a screw driver to pop the front seal out,make sure to catch the front lip of the seal with the screw driver not the inside back of the cover,check the dampner for a groove wore in by the seal,it can be fixed by driving on a speedy sleeve over the groove,take a 2x4 about a foot long, bore a hole towards one end a little larger than the crank,not much,litely grease inside of the seal,litely oil the inside of the cover where the seal goes,place the seal over the crank,into the cover and by hand try to start the seal,it should stay,its important that the seal is square with the cover,place the 2x4 with the hole over the crank holding with your other hand smack the 2x4 with a 4lb. hammer directley over the hole, the idea is to try and do it with one shot,install dampner with istall tool.

Thanks for the help on this guys, this leak will be gone this weekend or I will die trying.....rain or shine, hell or high water. Does anyone think that I have to drop the pan for this, I really didn't want to. Just getting everything off the front of the motor will be hell enough.

If you decide to pull the front cover off, then I'm fairly sure you're gonna need to drop the sump (sorry - pan, UK/US confusion!)
The bottom of the front cover actually provides some of the "land" upon which the sump seats.
Now, the manual says to drop the sump if you take the front cover off, and this is what I did myself.BUT there's always someone out there who has done it and will say "don't be daft, you can do it without"
But looking back I think putting the cover BACK on a fully bolted up pan could be tricky, and you might end up with leaks in next to no time. Course, if you decide to do the crank seal with the cover in situ, it doesn't matter. Dropping the sump wasn't too bad, and gave me the chance to do the rear main seal too. Just drop the steering by undoing the idler arm, and rotate the crank so the balancing weights are horizontal, then the pan will slide out.

Looks like I'm going to need some beer for this one.

There is a lip on the bottom of the timing cover that requires the pan to be removed to take off the cover, almost. Here is a trick we did at Chevrolet. Remove the front three bolts on each side of the oil pan. Loosen the next one back on each side. Slide/drive a screwdriver in each side of the pan at the outer edge. The screwdriver will wedge the side of the pan down just enough to take the timing cover off. After you install the cover, use brake parts cleaner to clean the area the pan was pried away from the block. Use silicone sealer in the gap, remove the screwdrivers, install the bolts.

A few cautions. If you don't pry it down enough, you wont get the cover off without force and damage. If you pry it too much, you will damage the oil pan.

This was usually done on cars other than the Vettes. You did not have room to remove the pan without lifting the engine. Our C3s have lots of room under the pan, and it's almost as easy to just drop the pan. Almost. This is not a factory recommend repair. But done correctly it works everytime. Done wrong will cause damage everytime.

Most of the time you can change the seal without removing the timing cover. If you can't pry the seal out, carefully drill a small hole in the seal, insert a screw, and pull it out that way. Again, be carefull you don't nick the crankshaft.

I did not pull a cover to change this seal. The trick with the cover was done when the timing chain had to come off.

I can't thank you guys enough for the assistance on this. Thanks Ken for that last post which made me alot less nervous about doing this. Your expertise knows no bounds.