I had a minor coolant leak from one of the seals on the water pump of my '89 740 Turbo with 117K miles. I bought a gasket kit from FCP Groton for $2.00, and went about to perform this (what seemed to be) small task. It turned out to be my biggest nightmare, and may cost me my brick:

The water pump seems to be held in place by two bolts protruding from the engine block, and three additional bolts that unscrew and are removed when disassembling the pump. After I successfully removed the pump, scratched off the old gasket, replaced the seals, and placed a new gasket onto the block. I hen tried to fit the pump back onto the block. The two bolts that protrude from the block obviously slid right onto the pump, but then when I tried to fit the remaining three bolts through the pump and into the block, NONE of them fit. Meaning, none of the bolts caught thread when I tried to turn them into the block through the pump. I tried this with, and without the gasket (I thought maybe the gasket didn't fit well), no luck at all. Then, to make things much worse, one of the nuts fell into the bottom timing belt cover. I didn't have the wrench to unbolt the center pulley that turns all other drivebelts, required to remove the bottom timing belt cover, and a magnet didn't get it out. And then, to complete the nightmare, one of the protruding bolts snapped off as I was torquening a nut onto it. Plus, the same thing happened with one of the bolts that hold the thermostat housing into place (I also changed thermostats).

Here are my questions:

1) Why don't the three bolts that are removed and then reinserted into the block when the water pump is reinstalled catch thread?

2) Assuming I get the three bolts to thread into the block, can the water pump hold tight enough onto the block without the broken bolt? Do I need a new engine block?

3) Can the thermostat housing hold tight enough with just one bolt holding it to the block?

4) Can I ignore the nut that fell into the bottom timing belt cover, or does it have to come out?

Please, my brick is sitting on ramps and I don't know what my next move should be. ANY help would be appreciated.