My mate and I have got the our 1.8 zetec running (at last) after much fannying around and nearly dousing ourselves in burning petrol (long story) and there is a water leak we can't pin down. Its leaking while the engine is running or not, its driping from the the front left hand side (when looking at it from the front of the car) and I can see the very slight trickle coming past the oil filter flange but I can't see any further back than that yet.

There is no fuel or oil in the water, could it just be a loose pipe on the other side of the engine and its running across or could it be a seal on the water pump? Any other clues gratefully received

I am just stripping and cleaning up my 1.8 zetec at the moment, a pre '94 model. The bearing in the water pump housing had gone so had to change the entire unit. The seal on the old unit had degraded well beyond a usable state, it came of in lumps only when I took a screwdriver to it. Would have thought that seal would have caused me issues with leaking when I got it running if it had not been changed. Sounds like your problem it is coming from the same area so may be worth investigating that as a solution.