magical coolant leak

so the car is a 2000 lxi with the 2.5 24v v6. nothing but chasing issues with this car since we bought it, between fixes it is a fantastic car.
so my issue starts with a coolant leak. slight at first and almost non noticeable. I have plans for the car to completely scrap the old motor and throw in a 2.5-3.0 dohc conversion. however as for right now its a family vehicle and our only one for the next four months or so.
about two days ago I noticed a whiff of smoke from under the hood after stopping for smokes. popped the hood and noticed a slight smoking from under the timing belt cover. normally a person could smell and indicate it was coolant but my smeller doesn't work well. I had my wife try and smell it and she indicated to me it smelt like burning oil. so I dismissed this for maybe a leaking cam seal.
it wasn't until the next day we began to overheat rather rapidly. so I waited for the engine to cool and took off the radiator cap to see it was bone dry. I added a gallon before I realized it was dumping on the ground. it was pouring out rapidly in the general area of the water pump, yet the pump never gave any indication it fouled via big ploom of steam or any other obvious signal. so at this point I figured I would just have the woman put water in it during the day where I could pinpoint the leak from under and around the tiny ass engine compartment of this soon becoming contemptable car. this morning the woman helped me. I didn't jack up the car knowing gravity would throw off the result of where the leak was. strangely enough the coolant leaked nowhere close to where it did the day before. it wasn't by the passenger side of the engine anymore but dripping quickly from the top of the block and down under the driver side. we added water and this time it remained full minus the slower dripping from the top of the block, but no leak at all from the water pump area. I had her turn the car on, nothing, I had her use the heater, nothing,
im so confused, why would it dump coolant yesterday, and this morning it doesn't, yet the leak now is at the top of the block somewhere up in the intake manifold area where I cant see. thermostat is good. waterpump isn't leaking as of now (weird). I checked all of my visable coolant lines and saw nothing to indicate why it leaked so bad last night versus today.

anybody have any ideas?

 

water pump seal

so come to find out, it was the water pump. underneath the upper and lower intake manifold there is a pipe running from the water pump to the thermostat housing. I thought at first this was the leak. however since the seals to the waterpump run almost flush with the heads it leaked in different directions depending on how the car was parked. I hope non of you in the future have to replace a water pump in these cars. it is a nightmare.