92 camry, 3l of cooling missing, overheating

[nz-dude]

hi tn,
merry christmas

unfortunately yesterday i had some overheating problems ... i was driving about 150km on windy road and using the engine quite a bit ... back in town I saw the coolant temperature rising, first slightly above normal ... monitored it a bit ... temp got higher ... but never reached the red area .... finally pulled over, opened the hood and the reserve container had boiling water, fans weren't on, even AC couldn't kick on the fans ... oh shit ... well I then let the car cool down and was reading a couple of comprehensive threads about cooling issues on TN ... a few hours later, the car was cold and I began to investigate further .... the reserve container was still full, but the under the cap of the radiator there was no water. So I put in some water ... well some is good ... about 3 liters of water ... then started the engine again monitored everything ... had to refill a bit after some driving and now it seems ok ....

ok ... so a few weeks back, timing belt, water pump and thermostat have been replaced, also the cooling system has been flashed a couple of times ...

so from what I read on TN there might be the issues of air pockets in the system ... but can air pockets hold back 2-3 liter?

Can find any leaks under the car, so I assume the hoses etc are fine

Oil looks ok, doesn't seem to have traces of coolant liquid / water, exhausts are fine, no white smoke, fuel consumption is average.

Any suggestions what it could be?

After christmas I'll get to the garage where timing belt and water pump where done ...

But in the meantime i need the car and with monitoring the coolant level I should be save to drive, shouldn't I?

cheers and a merry christmas to all of you!