turns out it was a good thing for me that we called off the race. moved this today and it dumped all sorts of coolant and power steering fluid. Appears I didn't get a good seal on the braided hose when I replaced the bad AN fitting, and I may have to look for a crack in the radiator inlet. That is definitely the source, and the hose feels good and I cranked down the clamp. not sure wtf is going on there yet.