S14 SR Thermostat Issue

[speedfiend]

Well I recently installed a 1 piece Greddy intake manifold on my S14 sr and now my thermostat is not opening.

Here's the run down. Thermostat is a Nismo unit that was installed brand new and has 500 miles on it. I have removed it and put it in a pot of water to test it and it does in fact open properly so I know it is functioning. Thermostat was installed with the bleed thru hole up. Now when I installed the intake manifold I deleted all of the coolant lines that were originally below the intake. I now have one single 7/8" loop that runs from the back of the thermostat housing to the large port on the manifold. All other coolant lines have been blocked. Also, the water pump is brand new so I know things are good there.

Could it be possible that the water pump is creating enough pressure in that loop that it is actually holding the thermostat closed? Basically the pressure being more than the spring can overcome on the thermostat? I can grab the loop and it does have a good amount of pressure while running even with the radiator cap off. Or have I created another issue by deleting and blocking off all the lines that used to run thru the throttle body and such? Or do you think I'm fighting a stubborn air bubble? I've never had a problem bleeding the air from the system prior to this though.

Any help or ideas on this would be much appreciated.

Cameron