The 3rd function was installed at purchase, it's always been there. The hydro top link is new, but didn't seem to impact for better or worse the issue. Thing is, I don't see I can be getting air in the pressure side of the system, it's 2000 PSI fluid, how on earth is air going into that and fluid not coming (shooting) out? Which is why, for a long time, I've thought this was a suction side problem. The dealer, however, was thinking that too until he put the clear hose on, that, in his mind, made is clear there's something on the suction side that's not right. His first thought was a problem in the loader valve, but he's moved away from that and focused elsewhere for now. The next thing to try is a new filter housing, apparently there was a problem with a few of them that had external restrictions in them, not sure why that would cause air to get into the system, but it's what Kioti wants to try next. My money is on hydro pump, I've just had too much hydro weirdness with this machine from day 1 (that, because I'd never used a hydro before I attributed not to the machine, just to hydro static drives, but, now with another hydro in the family, I can see that this was "never right", at least not if Kioti's hydro operates anything like JD for smoothness).
I actually have the tractor back, it's a mess much worse than it was before, but I suspect that's mostly because it's gotten cold. This issue is nearly 100% temperature dependent. In warm weather, it'll never make the noise you hear on the video and the hydro behaves "not bad" (again, not as good as I think it should). I went out to use the tractor the other day, it was about 30 degrees out and I had to let it warm up for 30 minutes before it would reliably move the loader. It sounded awful, just bubbles all over in the suction line.
Interestingly, when it "smooths out" (from the operator perspective) and you look at the clear line, it's pure foam. Looks like the top of a latte. But I guess because it's a consistent foam, it works OK as hydro oil? Donno.