yes there should be a thin even smear of gasket sealant on the gasket btwn the tc and block. thin and even to me means something about as thick as doughnut glaze--not maple frosting, but thick sugar glaze...anyhow, breakfast time here... probably that lack of sealant is allowing water from one of the passages to flood down into your oil pan and then leack out around the edgs of the tc cover. there should be a thicker (8th inch) smear where the tc cover and oil pan come together too.

read a manual carefully, or some links off this site, you'll notice they all say use gasket sealant--but not too much-- on the tc/block mating.

other things to look at when you put it back to gether:

check the two pipesthat mount to the BACK of the tc cover on either side to see theay are seated correctly.

when you rebuilt it did you put on a new tc cover? did you buy this engn running or kaput already? could it be the chain ate a hole the the tc? that would be one other idea for the water in oil...

for the water leak itself also check to see the water pump gasket on the surface of the tc cover is good.

these are things to check, but it sounds like the