diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/replication/TransportShardReplicationOperationAction.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/replication/TransportShardReplicationOperationAction.java
index 539187c8fa2..5a58a5a9689 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/replication/TransportShardReplicationOperationAction.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/action/support/replication/TransportShardReplicationOperationAction.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.action.support.replication;
 
 import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchException;
+import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchIllegalStateException;
 import org.elasticsearch.ExceptionsHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionListener;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionResponse;
@@ -332,6 +333,18 @@ public abstract class TransportShardReplicationOperationAction<Request extends S
                 // make it threaded operation so we fork on the discovery listener thread
                 request.operationThreaded(true);
                 clusterService.add(request.timeout(), new TimeoutClusterStateListener() {
+                    @Override public void postAdded() {
+                        if (start(true)) {
+                            // if we managed to start and perform the operation on the primary, we can remove this listener
+                            clusterService.remove(this);
+                        }
+                    }
+
+                    @Override public void onClose() {
+                        clusterService.remove(this);
+                        listener.onFailure(new ElasticSearchIllegalStateException("node is shutting down"));
+                    }
+
                     @Override public void clusterChanged(ClusterChangedEvent event) {
                         if (start(true)) {
                             // if we managed to start and perform the operation on the primary, we can remove this listener
@@ -345,6 +358,7 @@ public abstract class TransportShardReplicationOperationAction<Request extends S
                             clusterService.remove(this);
                             return;
                         }
+                        clusterService.remove(this);
                         final PrimaryNotStartedActionException failure = new PrimaryNotStartedActionException(shardId, "Timeout waiting for [" + timeValue + "]");
                         if (request.listenerThreaded()) {
                             threadPool.execute(new Runnable() {
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ClusterService.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ClusterService.java
index 1a681618b10..696f136cdc9 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ClusterService.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/ClusterService.java
@@ -35,7 +35,5 @@ public interface ClusterService extends LifecycleComponent<ClusterService> {
 
     void add(TimeValue timeout, TimeoutClusterStateListener listener);
 
-    void remove(TimeoutClusterStateListener listener);
-
     void submitStateUpdateTask(final String source, final ClusterStateUpdateTask updateTask);
 }
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/TimeoutClusterStateListener.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/TimeoutClusterStateListener.java
index db47c0cc8bf..7e4e8291ba2 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/TimeoutClusterStateListener.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/TimeoutClusterStateListener.java
@@ -22,9 +22,15 @@ package org.elasticsearch.cluster;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
 
 /**
- * @author kimchy (Shay Banon)
+ * An exception to cluster state listener that allows for timeouts and for post added notifications.
+ *
+ * @author kimchy (shay.banon)
  */
 public interface TimeoutClusterStateListener extends ClusterStateListener {
 
+    void postAdded();
+
+    void onClose();
+
     void onTimeout(TimeValue timeout);
 }
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/service/InternalClusterService.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/service/InternalClusterService.java
index 3382ffe5474..b782b9c5c73 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/service/InternalClusterService.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/cluster/service/InternalClusterService.java
@@ -23,23 +23,27 @@ import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchException;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.*;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNode;
 import org.elasticsearch.cluster.node.DiscoveryNodes;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.collect.Tuple;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.component.AbstractLifecycleComponent;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.inject.Inject;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.timer.Timeout;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.timer.TimerTask;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.jsr166y.LinkedTransferQueue;
 import org.elasticsearch.discovery.DiscoveryService;
 import org.elasticsearch.threadpool.ThreadPool;
+import org.elasticsearch.timer.TimerService;
 import org.elasticsearch.transport.TransportService;
 
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Queue;
 import java.util.concurrent.CopyOnWriteArrayList;
 import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
-import java.util.concurrent.ScheduledFuture;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 
 import static java.util.concurrent.Executors.*;
 import static org.elasticsearch.cluster.ClusterState.*;
-import static org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue.*;
 import static org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.EsExecutors.*;
 
 /**
@@ -47,10 +51,10 @@ import static org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.EsExecutors.*;
  */
 public class InternalClusterService extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<ClusterService> implements ClusterService {
 
-    private final TimeValue timeoutInterval;
-
     private final ThreadPool threadPool;
 
+    private final TimerService timerService;
+
     private final DiscoveryService discoveryService;
 
     private final TransportService transportService;
@@ -59,45 +63,28 @@ public class InternalClusterService extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<ClusterSe
 
     private final List<ClusterStateListener> clusterStateListeners = new CopyOnWriteArrayList<ClusterStateListener>();
 
-    private final List<TimeoutHolder> clusterStateTimeoutListeners = new CopyOnWriteArrayList<TimeoutHolder>();
-
-    private volatile ScheduledFuture scheduledFuture;
+    private final Queue<Tuple<Timeout, TimeoutClusterStateListener>> onGoingTimeouts = new LinkedTransferQueue<Tuple<Timeout, TimeoutClusterStateListener>>();
 
     private volatile ClusterState clusterState = newClusterStateBuilder().build();
 
-    @Inject public InternalClusterService(Settings settings, DiscoveryService discoveryService, TransportService transportService, ThreadPool threadPool) {
+    @Inject public InternalClusterService(Settings settings, DiscoveryService discoveryService, TransportService transportService, ThreadPool threadPool,
+                                          TimerService timerService) {
         super(settings);
         this.transportService = transportService;
         this.discoveryService = discoveryService;
         this.threadPool = threadPool;
-
-        this.timeoutInterval = componentSettings.getAsTime("timeout_interval", timeValueMillis(500));
+        this.timerService = timerService;
     }
 
     @Override protected void doStart() throws ElasticSearchException {
         this.clusterState = newClusterStateBuilder().build();
         this.updateTasksExecutor = newSingleThreadExecutor(daemonThreadFactory(settings, "clusterService#updateTask"));
-        scheduledFuture = threadPool.scheduleWithFixedDelay(new Runnable() {
-            @Override public void run() {
-                long timestamp = System.currentTimeMillis();
-                for (final TimeoutHolder holder : clusterStateTimeoutListeners) {
-                    if ((timestamp - holder.timestamp) > holder.timeout.millis()) {
-                        clusterStateTimeoutListeners.remove(holder);
-                        InternalClusterService.this.threadPool.execute(new Runnable() {
-                            @Override public void run() {
-                                holder.listener.onTimeout(holder.timeout);
-                            }
-                        });
-                    }
-                }
-            }
-        }, timeoutInterval);
     }
 
     @Override protected void doStop() throws ElasticSearchException {
-        scheduledFuture.cancel(false);
-        for (TimeoutHolder holder : clusterStateTimeoutListeners) {
-            holder.listener.onTimeout(holder.timeout);
+        for (Tuple<Timeout, TimeoutClusterStateListener> onGoingTimeout : onGoingTimeouts) {
+            onGoingTimeout.v1().cancel();
+            onGoingTimeout.v2().onClose();
         }
         updateTasksExecutor.shutdown();
         try {
@@ -122,12 +109,16 @@ public class InternalClusterService extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<ClusterSe
         clusterStateListeners.remove(listener);
     }
 
-    public void add(TimeValue timeout, TimeoutClusterStateListener listener) {
-        clusterStateTimeoutListeners.add(new TimeoutHolder(listener, System.currentTimeMillis(), timeout));
-    }
-
-    public void remove(TimeoutClusterStateListener listener) {
-        clusterStateTimeoutListeners.remove(new TimeoutHolder(listener, -1, null));
+    public void add(TimeValue timeout, final TimeoutClusterStateListener listener) {
+        Timeout timerTimeout = timerService.newTimeout(new NotifyTimeout(listener, timeout), timeout, TimerService.ExecutionType.THREADED);
+        onGoingTimeouts.add(new Tuple<Timeout, TimeoutClusterStateListener>(timerTimeout, listener));
+        clusterStateListeners.add(listener);
+        // call the post added notification on the same event thread
+        updateTasksExecutor.execute(new Runnable() {
+            @Override public void run() {
+                listener.postAdded();
+            }
+        });
     }
 
     public void submitStateUpdateTask(final String source, final ClusterStateUpdateTask updateTask) {
@@ -194,9 +185,6 @@ public class InternalClusterService extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<ClusterSe
                         }
                     }
 
-                    for (TimeoutHolder timeoutHolder : clusterStateTimeoutListeners) {
-                        timeoutHolder.listener.clusterChanged(clusterChangedEvent);
-                    }
                     for (ClusterStateListener listener : clusterStateListeners) {
                         listener.clusterChanged(clusterChangedEvent);
                     }
@@ -226,23 +214,21 @@ public class InternalClusterService extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<ClusterSe
         });
     }
 
-    private static class TimeoutHolder {
+    private class NotifyTimeout implements TimerTask {
         final TimeoutClusterStateListener listener;
-        final long timestamp;
         final TimeValue timeout;
 
-        private TimeoutHolder(TimeoutClusterStateListener listener, long timestamp, TimeValue timeout) {
+        private NotifyTimeout(TimeoutClusterStateListener listener, TimeValue timeout) {
             this.listener = listener;
-            this.timestamp = timestamp;
             this.timeout = timeout;
         }
 
-        @Override public int hashCode() {
-            return listener.hashCode();
-        }
-
-        @Override public boolean equals(Object obj) {
-            return ((TimeoutHolder) obj).listener == listener;
+        @Override public void run(Timeout timeout) throws Exception {
+            if (timeout.isCancelled()) {
+                return;
+            }
+            listener.onTimeout(this.timeout);
+            // note, we rely on the listener to remove itself in case of timeout if needed
         }
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryFileChunkRequest.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryFileChunkRequest.java
index 8843a694bdc..584a7a57486 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryFileChunkRequest.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryFileChunkRequest.java
@@ -98,4 +98,10 @@ class RecoveryFileChunkRequest implements Streamable {
         out.writeVInt(contentLength);
         out.writeBytes(content, 0, contentLength);
     }
+
+    @Override public String toString() {
+        return shardId + ": name='" + name + '\'' +
+                ", position=" + position +
+                ", length=" + length;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryTarget.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryTarget.java
index d200fefb12f..fe549169fcc 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryTarget.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/shard/recovery/RecoveryTarget.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 package org.elasticsearch.index.shard.recovery;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.store.IndexOutput;
+import org.elasticsearch.ElasticSearchIllegalStateException;
 import org.elasticsearch.ExceptionsHelper;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.StopWatch;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.component.AbstractComponent;
@@ -338,6 +339,9 @@ public class RecoveryTarget extends AbstractComponent {
             } else {
                 indexOutput = onGoingRecovery.openIndexOutputs.get(request.name());
             }
+            if (indexOutput == null) {
+                throw new ElasticSearchIllegalStateException("No ongoing output file to write to, request: " + request);
+            }
             synchronized (indexOutput) {
                 try {
                     indexOutput.writeBytes(request.content(), request.contentLength());
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/timer/TimerService.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/timer/TimerService.java
index 5a02371c143..2dfd8164ebd 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/timer/TimerService.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/timer/TimerService.java
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ public class TimerService extends AbstractComponent {
         }
 
         @Override public void run(final Timeout timeout) throws Exception {
-            threadPool.execute(new Runnable() {
+            threadPool.cached().execute(new Runnable() {
                 @Override public void run() {
                     try {
                         task.run(timeout);
diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/local/LocalTransport.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/local/LocalTransport.java
index c15e0490c0f..d7f3b368c8e 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/local/LocalTransport.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/transport/local/LocalTransport.java
@@ -87,10 +87,14 @@ public class LocalTransport extends AbstractLifecycleComponent<Transport> implem
     @Override protected void doStop() throws ElasticSearchException {
         transports.remove(localAddress);
         // now, go over all the transports connected to me, and raise disconnected event
-        for (LocalTransport targetTransport : transports.values()) {
-            for (Map.Entry<DiscoveryNode, LocalTransport> entry : targetTransport.connectedNodes.entrySet()) {
+        for (final LocalTransport targetTransport : transports.values()) {
+            for (final Map.Entry<DiscoveryNode, LocalTransport> entry : targetTransport.connectedNodes.entrySet()) {
                 if (entry.getValue() == this) {
-                    targetTransport.disconnectFromNode(entry.getKey());
+                    targetTransport.threadPool().cached().execute(new Runnable() {
+                        @Override public void run() {
+                            targetTransport.disconnectFromNode(entry.getKey());
+                        }
+                    });
                 }
             }
         }
diff --git a/modules/test/integration/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/datanode/SimpleDataNodesTests.java b/modules/test/integration/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/datanode/SimpleDataNodesTests.java
index cede7f0e099..967180e807f 100644
--- a/modules/test/integration/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/datanode/SimpleDataNodesTests.java
+++ b/modules/test/integration/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/integration/datanode/SimpleDataNodesTests.java
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.*;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*;
 
 /**
- * @author kimchy (Shay Banon)
+ * @author kimchy (shay.banon)
  */
 public class SimpleDataNodesTests extends AbstractNodesTests {