DailyLeggy

So, checked the car after letting it sit from my last post to today. Coolant has been sucked down from the overflow below the mark I made on Tuesday. No pressure on the hoses still. Any thoughts on which way I should lean? Head gasket, water pump or radiator?

After 5 min of the engine being shut down, little to no pressure on the hoses. Coolant level in the overflow not sucked back in and was able to take cap off radiator After 20 min, coolant level in overflow has not moved. So now, common sense tells me it's either blown head gasket or water pump is toast. Could be clogged radiator as well, right?

Today's tests include: 1. Running engine atvidle with radiator cap on. 2. Monitoring coolant level in overflow. 3. Combustion gas testing So, after work, I make sure coolant is just below the lip of the neck, place cap on radiator and mark the coolant level in the overflow with a Sharpie. Start the car and let idle with HVAC off. Lower hose heats up about 190* on scanner. Hoses have pressure on them. As the coolant flows through the engine, I monitor the overflow and see its rising ever so slightly. I watch the scanner as temps slowly...and I mean slowly...start to rise. At 209* on the scanner, relay fans kick on. They shut off at 201*-203* and when the scanner levels off, ECT is at 197*-198*. Coolant level in the overflow does not drop, which is opposite from when I was running the car with the bleeder funnel. Would rise and when fans kicked on, it would drop. I mention this a few posts above. Pic attached shows two dark Sharpie lines. Lower one is where level was when I started, upper one is where it's risen to and holds steady. However, after 15-20 minutes of the fans cycling on and off, the coolant level in the overflow stays put. As for combustion gas testing, in theory, if gasses were escaping/being pushed into the cooling system, when the radiator cap vents coolant to the overflow, those gasses should go there too, correct? I tested for about 5 min and the test fluid never changed color. So, here shortly, I'm gonna shut down the engine and check the overflow level periodically and see if the cooling system sucks down the coolant to the level it was at cold start. I'm also going to see how long the hoses retain pressure to see how long they do so. Will update tomorrow.

DrD - I pressure tested the system last night after work. Pressurized up to 15psi. It dropped 1psi over 20 minutes then held at 14psi for over 30 min. This was done with engine cold. I did not get a chance to try and do so after engine was up to temp. That may be tonight. Plan is to ensure coolant level are good and run the car with radiator cap at idle for a short while to monitor and very fan operation again (on at 210*; off at 196*) and also to see how long pressure can be felt on the hoses after shut down.

Would that mean then I am losing pressure somewhere? Common sense would dictate as much, correct? But, either the coolant is boiling over (causing pressure in the system) and dumping into the overflow, which in turn vents pressure (in theory), or the pressure is venting somewhere else and not properly circulating coolant. My thoughts are 1 of two things causing the lack of pressure to happen. 1. The brand new radiator cap is bad (unlikely, but not out of the equation) 2. I'm losing pressure somewhere else To be fair, though, I don't remember if there was pressure on the system after I purged the cooling system of air yesterday and ran at idle for a while with the cap on. I'll double check today after work and find out I'm also going to call my dad and ask if he can bring me thevpressure tester and test the cooling system. DrD123 stated possibly a bad water pump. I hope not as I really do not want to tear the front of this engine apart again. Replaced the timing belt, tensioner, idler pulleys and water pump 39k miles ago. Really don't want that hassle again. Any other thoughts?

Welp...back to square one it seems... TL/DR version: 1. While bleeding the cooling system, HVAC fan was OFF. 2. While bleeding the system, the coolant in the spill proof funnel was holding steady between the two lines in the above post. 3. Take the car for a drive with the HVAC turned off and we're back to where I started. Took my son with me to monitor the coolant temps. HVAC was off. The road I live on is a 35mph road and there is a gas station about 2.5 miles. Start driving and get up to speed and set the cruise while my son watches the temps. Starts off doing fine getting up to about 205 then starts coming down to about 190. Then, about 3/4 of a mile from the gas station, temps start to climb so I turn on the fans to 3 and turn on the AC compressor to get the fans running. Temps start to climb up past the 220 mark. I hit the hazard lights and pull off into an access driveway and as I come to a stop, the temp warning light comes on. Shut the car down leaving the IGN in the OP position and temp is showing 235. Open the hood and the coolant level in the overflow is about 1/4" below the top. Let it sit for a few min with IGN in the ON position so the fans can pull some heat off the coolant in the radiator. Wait about 5 minutes check the hoses. There doesn't seem to be any pressure on them. Carefully remove the radiator cap and get no hissing or no pressurized coolant coming out (hoses didn't feel pressurized). Take the cap off and there's no coolant visible at the neck. I pour coolant from the overflow back into the radiator using a makeshift funnel and it takes about 3/4 of the contents. Let the car sit for a few more minutes while we monitor the temp and when it hits about 185, I start it up and get turned around to head home. Get about halfway home and the temp starts to climb again above 210. Put the car into neutral to take the load off the engine and it drops slightly while I coast but then comes back up. Pull off the road again and check the coolant level in the overflow. Has come up a bit, but not too much. Sit again for a few minutes and once the temps get about 185, I make another attempt at getting home, this time successfully. Get the car into the garage, kill the engine and turn the IGN back on to monitor temps. Sitting at 230 but dropping as the AC is still on so the fans are running. Pop the hood and overflow is about 3/4 of the way full now. I again carefully take the cap off (again, no pressure on the hoses) and put the spill proof funnel on and place some coolant in it. Temps dropped down to about 185 before I came into my computer to type this post. Here's what's now confusing me... At idle, fans kicked on and off while I was again bleeding the cooling system. As soon as I take it for a driver, never getting over 40 mph or more than 2000 RPM, the cooling system is either getting to boing point being under pressure, the fans aren't kicking on at 210 like they did while sitting, or there isn't enough air flow through the radiator fins (with the AC condenser sitting in front of it). I'm done for the day. I'll get back to it tomorrow after work. I'm gonna jump on the Harley and go clear my head. Troubleshooting and thinking you got things sorted only to find out you didn't SUCKS....

Not sure if I put it in my opening post but I did buy a new cap with the t-stat and hoses from the Subaru dealership. Have been letting it run with the cap on and watching the overflow and not seeing any rise in level at the moment. Think I'm going to take it for a quick test drive while keeping the scanner plugged in so my son can monitor the coolant temp. Update to follow.

Ok, here's a 40-ish second video of the bubbles coming up. https://youtube.com/shorts/GnQ8NGyJVxw?feature=share

@silverton Thank you for the info. Your tip about leaving the HVAC fan off seems to have helped me out. So, here's a little update after about 45 minutes of letting the car run at idle with the HVAC fan in the OFF position. As I mentioned earlier, I filled the funnel to just below the vertical section. Started the car and monitored the coolant temp with my OBD II scanner. After about 15 minutes or so, the thermostat seemed to open as the lower hose got hot. Temp on the scanner showed 190*. Cool. At least I know now that the T-Stat is working which makes some sense since the coolant temp sensor is at the top of the engine and the warmer temps up there could differ a few degrees from the temp at the T-Stat. So, as the engine was idling I noticed that the level of coolant in the funnel did come up a bit and leveled off. I made a mark with my sharpie marker on the funnel. I continued to watch the temp on the scanner and positioned myself on the driver side so I could also see the fans. I noticed as the temperature began to rise, the level above the sharpie mark also rose but also leveled out so I made a second mark. (See attached picture.) After about 35-40 minutes, the temp on the scanner showed 210 and the fans kicked on!!! WOOOT!!! They turned off when the scanner showed about 201 but when the temp leveled out it was at 196, which if I read the bulletin that was posted in the link above correctly, that's what it's supposed to do. I also noticed that the coolant level in the funnel never went below the bottom mark or above the top mark. I let the fans cycle on and off about 4 or 5 times and the coolant level stayed right where it needed to be. I also have a video that I took after about 25 minutes being at idle and there are air bubbles that do come out here and there. But, common sense would tell me that if I had a bad head gasket that breached at the cooling passages from the combustion chamber, the bubbles would be coming up a lot more than what I saw. (Will post video of the bubbles I was seeing shortly.) I think I am making progress here and maybe all hope is not lost!!!

**UPDATE after 5 minutes from below. Lower hose got hot now and some air bubbles came up through the funnel. Temp was at 190 then dropped to about 180 for a moment. Currently sitting at 189.** So, filled up bleeder funnel to just below the vertical section before starting. Here's the level now after about 15 min stvidle with interior heat off. Scanner says coolant temp is at 183*. Lower hose still cold.

Regarding the rattler on the tstat, yes. It is at the 12 o'clock position. I made sure of that when I took the old one out but appreciate you bringing that one up as I did not mention that. Right now, after letting the car sit for a couple of days with the bleeder funnel on and covered (lots of bugs here in the midwest) and it is currently sitting about halfway between the neck and the vertical portion of the funnel. Should I fill it to the point where the vertical section is? As for bleeding the air with interior heat off, do you mean having the fan in the off position or having the temp range set to cool air vs. warm. Im guessing the former. As for the blend doors, is it something that's easy to fix or diagnose without tearing the interior apart? Just seems weird that if the AC is on, all vents blow hot butbifbibturn on AC, two blow cool. It's probably something that does make sense and I'm over thinking but, that's what I do. I'm gonna try again here shortly to see if I can get this sorted but if the fans don't come on after an hour of being at idle, could it be a bad Coolant Temp Sensor? Are those easy to swap without taking the intake manifold off?

Ok...so I had to go out of town last week for work and I got back to work yesterday when I got back. What's weird is at first idle, after the temp got up to around 185 - 190 (verified with OBD II scanner) the lower radiator hose never got hot, like the t-stat never opened. It wasn't until I started revving the engine to try and work any more air pockets out that I finally got some heat in the lower hose. Coolant temp during this process would get up to about 210. During this whole scenario, I kept the heat on with the fan either on the second setting or the third setting and kept the A/C off. The fans never once kicked on. Had engine temps at one point around 214. What is also strange is during the time I was revving the engine, keeping it between 2000 - 3000 RPM, the coolant level in the spill-proof funnel would start to rise. Even if I stopped revving, it would continue to rise up but more slowly. Only when I would shut off the engine would the coolant get sucked back in after gurgling a bit. Then, over the course of a few hours, more coolant would get sucked back in. Also, and this is weird, when I don't have the A/C button on, I get good hot heat out of all the HVAC vents, however, when I press the A/C button to turn the compressor on, still having the heat turned up, both passenger vents start to blow cool air while the driver side still blows hot. If I sustain RPMs around 1800 - 2000 the passenger vents blow slightly warm air but i cannot get it to blow out any hot air at all. I'm to the point where my skill level is maxed out on any further diagnosing of this issue but I really can't afford taking this to a dealer to find out what's wrong. I really wish someone here on the forums was near me that could come over and help me try and figure this stuff out...

Update: This morning, after letting the car sit overnight, I checked the coolant levels and everything was good. Just at the base of the radiator cap neck and at the full mark for the overflow. Started the car with heat still on and AC off and started a timer. After 30 minutes of just idling, the lower hose never got hot. The fans never kicked on. The fluid level in the overflow, previously at full, was starting to creep up. Good hot heat was coming out of all HVAC vents on the dash. I siphoned out some of the coolant in the reservoir to get it between full and low and let it run a few more minutes. After another 5 or so minutes, still no change in level in reservoir and still no fans. Also, just to see if the fans were still working, I pushed the AC button and the fans kicked on however, what is weird, is when I did that, the two passenger side vents started blowing cooler air (not cold) while the driver side vents still blew hot. Pushed the AC button to turn it off and the passenger side vents still blowing cooler air. I took it for a 10 minute drive around my neighborhood never exceeding 40mph and everything seemed fine. No lights, still had heat coming out the driver side vents but not the passenger side vents. As I was coming back up my driveway and parking, the temperature light came on red and I shut it down in front of my garage. Opened the hood and the overflow was completely full and it looks like some coolant had vented out the little hole at the top and from around the overflow cap. As a side note, yesterday before I drained the existing coolant to do my t-stat and hose change out, I did a combustion gas test on the radiator. The radiator was already low so I didn't have to siphon any out. I started testing about 10 - 15 minutes after the car was running and continued doing so for 20 minutes and the fluid never changed color. Then, the coolant started to rise (which I did not notice at first) and coolant got in the tester and contaminated the fluid. But, those 10 minutes I was testing, I never got any change in color. Oil doesn't show any signs of coolant in the system, either. It's a clean as it was 7 weeks ago when my son got the oil changed. I'm at a complete loss here. Either I have one hell of an air pocket in the cooling system that is wreaking havoc on my car and my patience or I have something else way larger going on.

Update for the below post - Let car run for close to 30 min and fans never cane on. No warning lights either. So, back out letting the car run with the funnel on. Been running about 25 minutes. Heat is on, no AC, and lower hose is hot. Coolant in the reservoir still getting some bubbles out but...the fans have yet to kick on and coolant level in the funnel is slowly rising. Thoughts?

Hey there, everyone. Long time gone but back again with another topic. Will try to keep it short and to the point but I'm at my wits end and am not wanting to have to spend too much money so trying some self diagnostics here. Replaced my t-stat/gasket and both radiator hoses today on my car however, I'm noticing something that is quite odd during the cooling system bleeding. (Had front of car jacked up in the air and using a spill proof funnel). I'm noticing that the radiator fans don't seem to be kicking on even after letting the car run for quite a while. When I turn the A/C on with the button, the fans instantly kick on. I let the car fun for a good 15-20 minutes while up in the air and was revving the engine between 1500-2500 off and on to get the water pump to try and force more air out of the system, which it seemed to do, but the fans never kicked on without the AC on. I also noticed at one point that when I was revving the car to help bleed the air, the coolant level in the spill-proof funnel was rising. It started getting close to the top of the funnel so I shut the car off and it started sucking back down into the radiator. To be fair on this, my son usually has this car with him at college but he doesn't really drive it that much. When he brought it back from school a couple weeks ago, it started having some issues with the cooling system. Not sure if the radiator fans not coming on without AC was a thing before today as I haven't been driving it while he's overseas (i have another car and a motorcycle.) This is why I replaced the t-stat/gasket and hoses as I've had the car for 5 years and wasn't sure what condition the t-stat was in. (Did timing belt in 2020 but can't remember if the kit came with a t-stat or not. It did have the water pump!) I've searched online and in multiple different forums and there are multiple scenarios from bad fan relays to bad coolant temperature sensor. And, since this particular generation doesn't have a temperature gauge, and I don't have anything to read the temp from the ECU, I'm kinda stuck. Any suggestions on what I can do here? Thanks in advance, all!

Hey gang! Well, last night my son came home and told me there were a bunch of lights illuminated on the gauge cluster on the Leggy. Here's what was going on... 1. Check Engine Light illuminated. 2. Traction Control icon illuminated. 3. "Cruise" indicator slowly flashing. 4. "Brake" indicator flashing (a bit faster than the Cruise indicator). Took it to Autozone to have the codes read. To note, with the COVID19 protocols, they give you a device to plug into the OBD II that reads/stores the codes. You take that scanner in and they plug it into their computer and tell you what the code is. I do the above, take the scanner in and they tell me it's a P0028. Intake Valve Control Solenoid Circuit Range/Performance (Bank 2) They tell me the part is a bit over a $100 and they don't have it at the moment. I tell them I'll have to wait a bit because I am currently working on my other car. Go back out to the car, start it up, the lights are gone. I go back in and ask them if that scanner automatically clears codes. They say it doesn't without doing a series of button pushes, which I didn't do because I didn't know. Go to the car, drive it home, no more lights. Son takes his girlfriend home and comes back and no lights. Any ideas what caused this code or why it just seemed to clear on its own? He captured a video and sent it to me so I uploaded it to youtube. Here's a link.

Good Evening Gang, So, this past Thursday I drove my oldest son up to Michigan for his freshman year of college in my 2012 Leggy 2.5i. During the drive up there and back, in the 90-ish degree weather and midwest humidity, the A/C was needed but it seemed that the cabin would just not get cool enough. Long story short, it was found that I was low on freon (which is another issue I now have to diagnose) and once I refilled the freon with the freon refill and the trigger that has the gauge on it (pretty nifty, too) it's now blowing ice cold air. However, in looking at my AC compressor, it appears that I do not have a clutch on the front of the pulley. I know technology has created many much more efficient methods of just about everything, but I have never seen anything like it. Oh...and the relay in the fuse box that is labeled for AC Comp is missing. Like not there, doesn't look like it ever was there. So, is this some new fangled witchcraft & sorcery or am I in fact crazy...LOL Thanks in advance.

Team, I think I have some good news. I was able to get the pulley back on with some careful filing of the nick and a few curse words (and beer, too. Priorities...) and got the car running again. Well, I had to return my friend's truck to him and since he is a bit of a mechanic like I, we brain stormed a bit about the noise. He grabbed a long metal prop rod he had in the back of his truck, put it on one of the tabs of the heat shield and had me give the car a few revs and wouldn't you know, no chattering noise. Turns out one of the screws/bolts on the exhaust shield is rotted out. I'll be honest, I did not think for one moment it was heat shield even though mine are pretty well shot. Not sure how much of a chore it is to replace them, so may try to repair in some fashion. I've seen the videos of stuffing steel wool in there and clamping down with a hose clamp, but to be honest or people just saying they live with the noise, but I cannot stand any noises that aren't supposed to be there. Time to put her back on jack stands, drop the lower cover and get to getting and try to get this thing back to the way it was. DailyLeggy out!

Well, I think I know why the balancer won't go back on to the crank snout. I noticed a bit of debris in the keyway so I grabbed a paper towel and a small hook-pick as I have fat fingers. Well, when I running the paper towel back with the pick, just at the back of the keyway is a small catch on the left side. The right side goes smooth. No catch. I have no idea how that catch could have gotten there as I am stupid careful taking the balancer off and putting it back on. But, considering how my luck is going, it doesn't surprise me that Murphy has shown is ugly face again... So, off to Home Depot I go tomorrow after work to see if I can find some very fine precision files to try and work it down enough to get it back on the crank.

Ok...So in my paranoia, I took the front of the engine apart again to double check the timing marks. Good to go. However, now I am having a huge problem getting the damn harmonic balancer back on the crank snout after reassembling everything. The woodruff key is there and I am trying my damndest to get the keyway on the balancer lined up, which I get it right there, but it will not slide on to the snout. Question...is it ok to put some engine oil on the snout and the inner ring of the balancer to aid in getting it on. I obviously will not be trying to force or tap the balancer on to the snout as I don't want to damage the woodruff key or keyway on the snout. Any suggestions? By the way, that noise in the video is not related to any of the accessories on the front as the noise is there even when the drive belt is off. So...ummm...yeah. Oh, and to add insult to injury, my wife's car took a shit so now I am down both my vehicles. FML.

Well, after a weeks worth of work, replacement of timing belt/components and water pump, coolant by-pass pipe, a new accessory idler pulley and belt, I still have the same chirping sound I originally thought was related to the tensioner. It drive nice, idles smooth and seems to be just like before however, with that chirping noise, I am afraid to romp it a little bit to make sure it still accelerates well. I also can't hear anything else over that noise so it makes it hard to listen for any differences or "misses," if you will. I have eliminated it being the accessory belt tensioner, AC compressor, Alternator or PS pump by removing the accessory belt and starting the car. Gave it a few quick revs and it still has the same chirp. (Idler pulley and belt were replaced 3 days before I started the timing belt job.) At this point I am thinking either the tensioner on the timing belt or any of the new idlers is the culprit, but I highly doubt it as they are brand new I and would hope to god that I didn't get sent defective equipment. I have uploaded a short 9 second video to YouTube where I have my son do two revs of the engine. You can hear the "chirping" as it peaks then starts to drop at the 2 and 6 second marks. I am really hoping someone can point me in the right direction. One item to note on the tensioner, both new and old. When I installed it, and before putting the belt on, and torqued it down to the recommended 26 - 32 ft. lbs. (I split the difference at 29, I grabbed the tensioner body where the bushing/bolt is and noticed that I have a very amount of movement front to back. And I mean VERY small. I checked the old tensioner and noticed that the bushing inside of it that the bolt passes through is a smidge larger than the tensioner. Guessing that is by design so the tensioner can still travel up and down as needed. It the bushing was flush, and after tightening, it couldn't move up or down. Am I right on that?? And, just because I am super paranoid, I am going to take the timing cover off again tomorrow and quintuple check that the timing marks on the cams/crank are where they are supposed to be. Yes, I know the marks on the belt will not line up probably ever again for my eyes. One question, if I put the crank pulley back on with the the timing cover off, I shouldn't have any problem running the car for a few minutes to see if I can pinpoint where the noise may be coming from, should I? I really want to get this fixed but lemme tell you, I've about had my fill with this car.

It's gonna be a slow drive to the gas station and back for now before I really start driving it normally. But, thank you. I just finished getting the undertray back on and will be getting it out of the garage to sit and idle again for a bit so I can do a second check for any leaks. Before I put the undertray back on I did a second check for leaks and didn't see anything new around the engine, heads or water pump outlet. However, I think I still may have some residual coolant pooled up on the cross-member that I think was from when I pulled the heater core hoses off the engine to begin the intake manifold removal/replacement to get the bypass pipe off. I say this as there were a couple of drops just hangin from the crossmember but I didn't see anything physically coming from any part of the engine/heads. I'm gonna find some cardboard to stick underneath the car this evening to let me know if there are other areas I need to inspect after my drive later. Got to get it done before this whole damn curfew thing starts tonight. Will update everyone later.

Well...here's the skinny. I HAVE A HOT LOWER RADIATOR HOSE!!! I had to let it run for close to 45 minutes with the heater blowing hot. I also occasional hit the AC button to turn it on and the fans would kick on and stay on for quite a while. Hoses going to the heater core have heat on them as well. Did a final check of the underside of the car to see if there were any new leaks and there appear to be none from wherever I could physically see. By the way, in case none of you knew this...those exhaust manifolds under the car get HOT...LOL. Accidentally brushed my arm against it while I was underneath the car. Thankfully I had my heavy duty coveralls on, which probably saved me a huge burn, but I still felt it. So, thank you everyone for suggestions and the questions to make sure I had my shit together. Appreciate everyone's help/assistance/comments. Tell ya all what, though...after 3 times of putting on and taking off the timing belt, I'm pretty sure that I can now do that job in less than three hours. LOL Thanks again everyone! DailyLeggy Out!!!

Answers: 1. It was the same thermostat that was in the water pump I took out. I did the boiling water test and it worked perfectly. 2. It went in the new water pump the same way it was in the old one. 3. Yes, the rattle pin was at 12 o'clock. Spoke last night with another friend of mine who suggested making sure the HVAC temp control was turned to hot to allow the switchover valve to open. He thinks that may be the problem. Going to try that tonight when I finish work.

Max Cap, As a side note, I ended up having to remove the crossover pipe to get the coolant bypass pipe out. Read more on that in the crazy super detailed response below the TL/DR version... TL/DR version 1. Yes. Read through the thread. 2. Only needed PB Blaster on a few points 3. Didn't use anti-seize and based on you asking me this, I probably should have. Problems after first start up: - Engine runs smooth - After getting up to temp, upper rad hose is hot, lower one is cold. - I used a spill proof funnel that attaches to the radiator neck when filling radiator. - Drained coolant the next day. No signs of paper towel particles in the coolant as I may have left one or both in place even though I am pretty sure I removed them (used paper towels to cover ports on head with intake mani off and also coolant ports under cross-over pipe as I had to remove it to remove the coolant bypass pipe. See below). - Removed thermostat to check for debris from paper towels. All clear. - Tested the thermostat and it works as it should in boiling water. - Borescoped the crossover pipe. No signs of paper towels in the ports going into the block at either point. Did I just not bleed it long enough? Long version below. End TL/DR version... I did read through the Aisin timing belt kit thread below mine which is why I ended up going with that particular kit. To answer your other question about the PB Plaster and anti-sieze... I was able to break almost all of the bolts lose however on some of the more stubborn ones, yes. In regards to the anti-seize...unfortunately, no. Should I have? I don't remember seeing that in the other thread. I will go back through and read it all again. That all being said, I now have a new problem... So since this was my first time and I don't know all the little tips and tricks, I completely removed the accessories on the front of the engine. AC compressor resting on the front of the engine, alternator off and PS pump over by the air box. After taking off the intake manifold and plugging the intake ports on the heads to prevent debris, I started working to get the coolant bypass pipe off. In order to actually get the coolant bypass pipe out, I had to remove the coolant cross-over pipe as the tube on the back end of it that ultimately goes to the heater core would not come off the coolant cross pipe. I gave it a couple of light taps using one of my plastic mallets to just see if I could jar it loose, but no dice, so off the cross over pipe came and filled in the water ports in the same fashion as the intake ports. As I knew I needed new o rings off to Menards to score some #44 o rings. Side note: Have read a few threads on the interwebs that say that #34 can work also, so I bought two sets of each, just in case. So, get the old coolant by-pass pipe off, get the new one in, connect the hoses at the water pump and the one to the heater core. Get the cross-over pipe in place, get the intake mani on, the accessories back in place and get everything buttoned up. Get my spill proof funnel kit (the ones that actually attach to the radiator filler neck) and get to work filling up with new coolant. Get it all filled up and here comes the moment of truth! Start the car and it fires right up and sounds like its running like a top. After a few minutes the blue temperature light on the dash goes out, so I am thinking, "Sweet! Coolant should now be circulating through the thermostat." Let it run a few more minutes, the fans kick on, run a short bit then go off. Repeat two more time. Then, the fourth time they kick on, they sound like they're trying to start a tornado. They don't shut off, either. So, to play it safe, I shut the car down. Top radiator hose is hot...bottom one is cold. Let is sit for about 5 minutes and start up again and let it run hoping maybe there's just an air pocket in it somewhere. A few more minutes in, I see that there is steam coming from the coolant in the funnel. Not a lot, just a small amount. The coolant is also very very warm. Borderline hot. Lower hose is still cold. Keep in mind I never got an overheating warning on the dash. So I start thinking, what did I miss??? Then I think, did I remove the paper towels from the coolant ports for the cross-over pipe??? S!@#...I may have to tear the top end apart again... Have a smoke, think for a bit and call it a night. Will address in the AM (read:530pm...)Time for bed. It's 4am and I am beat. Fast forward to this afternoon. Run to my buddy's place to borrow his borescope while I let the coolant drain. Get back, pop off the thermostat thinking maybe, it might be bad or if I did leave the paper towel in one of those ports, maybe some of it has broken up and is blocking the area of the thermostat. Nothing. Clean as the day I put it in. Take the thermostat and clean it off so I can put it in a pot of boiling water to test it like the old schoolers do, and boom...it works perfectly. Pull the upper hose off the cross-over pipe and run the borescope to the first port and it's clean. Push it a bit more to the second port and it's clean as well. So...now, here I am not knowing what the hell is going on and wondering if I had left one or both paper towels in the coolant ports when I put the cross-over pipe on, wouldn't the pressure build up cause something to start leaking? Could it have gotten lodged somewhere else? Would that cause the engine to start having issues?? I am pretty sure I took them out as I did the ones for the intake manifold however, I just have this small sliver of doubt. I really don't want to have to tear the whole engine apart as I do not have the tools to do so nor the space in my garage for a complete engine tear-down. I also don't have that much knowledge with these engines. Here I was trying to save some cash by doing a timing belt change on my own, and now I have possibly opened up Pandora's box...to which if I did screw this up I am going to have to pay to have corrected. Any help is appreciated.