Okay, indeed i checked in editor mode and yes, 2nd tier creates separate system.
My pleasure :)
Maybe it wouldn't be a great development challenge to mark on technology screen or on factoriopedia (alt+click) that same 'level' of pipe creates single liquid system?
https://imgur.com/a/mus2FHO
at the moment every kind of pipe has same description.
edit: okay, on technology screen( where researches are queued there is description that each pipe allows other fluid, my bad, sorry).
Cavex really has potential to be more interesting aspect of Warp Drive. Take for instance big rooms with worms - they are pitch black. A flare could be handy in such situations ( made from coal, warponium plates and wood, because for a moment wood mainly clutters inventory and you don't get it as much to consider it as a viable backup fuel); acting like a Lamp entity but throwable and wherever it lands it stays lit for 30, 120, 300 seconds (tiers of research) and light radius also dependent on research level. Despite being hot it doesn't deal damage, just provides light.
For jackhammer - special fuel for it could be made in chem plant out of warponium( ore? plate? only these i've found in crashed ships so far) and some iron pieces for a small container, just as Krastorio 2's fuel for vehicles. Equipable like a weapon with fuel as ammo( variation of flamethrower?).
I mean, if only source of warponium ore are crashed spaceships and caves, it should have legitimate use case in said caves in the first place.
Another addition for cavex freaks - sonar( warponium plate, radar, green circuit, steel plate, programmable speaker[ because why not ;d] ), a single use item, stackable to 5 allowing to map 10 chunks deep and 2 chunks wide area in direction of engineers facing with probability of uncovering less or not work at all.
Yeah, your mod inspires me :D