Hello all I recently bypassed my heater core before my head gasket issue because I thought I might have been leaking coolant. I used an L joint connector to connect the in and out, simple stuff. Here's the issue though: it wasn't overheating ever, I had just been adding water and it kept getting low. After I blue deviled the engine I realized I may have had a small head leak and was burning coolant the whole time.

Here's the big question: when you burp the system, shouldn't the vent that sits on top of water pump housing kind of gush water in a jet? When I have the cap off and that vent open it just barely dribbles...whereas the tstat housing sort of gushes. Did I screw up and restrict the flow of coolant to that area? That's what I'm kind of thinking right now but I wanted a second opinion before I go buying hoses again... Oh and there's no t stat I took that out

2003 3.1l 162k miles

Oh! I pressure tested the system...it holds steady at the 15-16 psi Mark with no leaks or drop in the gauge. The rad cap holds pressure at 16 psi as well.

I attached the tester and it took about 7 minutes for it to build up to 7 psi, then it went up to about 14 in about 12 minutes. I released the pressure because I knew the tester was rated higher than the system