So I did a Timing Belt job on my 2000 today - err actually over the last four days - lol. I noticed some interesting things.

First - one of the bolts holding the oil pump was backed out quite a bit. It took me like 8 turns to get it torqued up. Although now as I am inspecting these photos I see the other bolts have a white plastic washer of some sort - maybe the one I found was missing this -- like it fell off or something. Now I wonder if it was bad that I torqued it up without that?

Second - Just above the oil pump there is something that looks like a crack - its actually a ridge if you feel it with your finger. It seems to emanate from one of the bolts. I'm not sure its actually a crack but it did seem to have a suuuper slow seep coming from its highest point. I wonder if someone over tightened that bolt and cracked it? Funny thing is, I have owned this car for twenty years and to my knowledge the oil pump has never been touched. You can see the spot in question in this pic. I wasn't able to get that wet spot to dry.

Third - when I took one of the bolts off the water pump oil dripped out of the bolt hole. wtf? It stopped after a fews seconds but this was surprising. No idea how it got i there.

Special thanks to Timmy for the great video that helped me do this job successfully.

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@mtbtim Here's another one of your viewers from your excellent YouTube video tutorials!

That's weird one of your oil pump bolts was backed out that far. No clue how that could happen unless it wasn't properly torqued when they built the engine. Mistakes do happen.

What I think you are detecting on those bolts is old thread locker. Toyota does suggest thread locker for certain applications.

I think that ridge above the oil pump is just how the block casting came out, but I could be wrong. I wouldn't worry about it.

As for the oil coming out of one of the water pump holes, some threaded holes on the engine block are through holes meaning there's no sealed off backing. The hole goes right through to another cavity that has oil traveling through it. I don't know 100% if that's the case with that bolt hole. Usually when that's the case, Toyota will suggest a thread sealant to prevent seepage of oil getting past the threads. This is the case with the Flex Plate or Fly Wheel that bolt up to the end of the crankshaft. Those crankshaft holes are through holes so you need to use a thread sealant on the threads of the bolts.

Good to hear our video series helped you out with the job.