Frozen coolant

[Mr_Tripp]

Damn I'm glad I live in SoCal, the low today is like 48°F

[efficient]

Nice and sunny in southern California ;)

[ThatOneEuroE30]

It was -40 here today my car barley started.

[jhaurimn]

Damn I'm glad I live in SoCal, the low today is like 48°F

Nice and sunny in southern California ;)

Enjoying those smog checks? ;)

[Mr_Tripp]

Enjoying those smog checks? ;)

I'd pay for a smog checks twice a year before I moved to a state where I wake up to negative anything.

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[brickwhite]

Smog checks and very liberal Government running your life, I'll take the cold.

[jhaurimn]

I'd pay for a smog checks twice a year before I moved to a state where I wake up to negative anything.

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Well as long as you dont sleep outside, I wake up to 65-70 degrees too :p

[lolcantturn]

That coolant mix sounds pretty iffy for New Jersey. A 60:40 dilution using 50:50 mix yields about an 80:20 coolant. Which is only good to 14F.

This post actually scared me enough to put in 3/4 gallon straight anti-freeze into my coolant, I should be fine now. Fuck I hate bleeding coolant

[lolcantturn]

Is just adding anti-freeze to the M42 radiator fine? I'm guessing it'll mix with the rest naturally as the car runs..


This seems like a really dumb question so I will put my flame suit on

[Mlarsen]

Just get some 50/50 antifreeze from autozone. No need to over complicate a simple task.

[ReallyDirtyThirty]

As long as you let the car run and the T-Stat open, you should be fine.

This reminds me of some super old school stuff...

Time used to be that a lot of cars ran summer/winter coolant mixes. Something we don't give a whole lot of thought about these days.

[TurboJake]

True for a garaged situation, not for outdoors. Think about how a radiator works.

Wind only expedites cooling to ambient temperature for metal. Your flesh is a different story. If it's -10 outside with a million mph wind, the metal will still only be -10, but it will get there quickly.

Easy quick example. Your outside temp gauge/readout if you have one on a car. driving down the road in even 25 degree weather, at 60mph, if wind chill affected it, it would read 3 degrees.

Also, even thought the hoses expanded and may have popped off or are leaking. This does not guarantee your block is okay. You can have ice in place, and not in another. Hoses typically do freeze before the block, which can cause a blockage in the block, and when that ice expands, everything can get screwed. Especially cylinders if the water jacket it pretty large. Ice expands in all directions, taking the least opposing path.

Not always the case. But, living up north has taught everyone to never let their blocks freeze. Even slight freezing can destroy everything. The fact that your CORE plugs haven't popped out, is actually reason for concern. They are not "freeze" plugs, that's just a commonly used name. They are leftover holes in the engine from the sand casting process to create the block. They are not intended to relieve pressure in a frozen coolant condition. Something else could've given way. Do not rely on them for any measure of block integrity.

Heat it up. Mix some proper coolant, and do it now, before more (possibly very bad) damage could happen, if it hasn't already. OR at the very least heat it up, and drain it all. Chances are it's fine, but why risk it if you don't have to.

Time used to be that a lot of cars ran summer/winter coolant mixes. Something we don't give a whole lot of thought about these days.

They also used to only run straight weight oils with no detergents. Stories of my grandfather having to drain the oil and coolant every night when parking the Hudson, bring it inside to keep it warm, and refill the next day are pretty abundant in my family.

[kway]

Stories of my grandfather having to drain the oil and coolant every night when parking the Hudson, bring it inside to keep it warm, and refill the next day are pretty abundant in my family.

Lol, reminds me of the old man's Oldsmobile from "A Christmas Story".

"That bitch would freeze up in the middle of summer, on the EQUATOR!"

[IRON-E]

Enjoying those smog checks? ;)

Lol, you can find a friend of a friend every 2 years, and take care of that smog check ;)

Sorry to see you guys dealing with that much cold though.

[fronton]

Small update: I reconnected the hoses and added a bunch of coolant and a some distilled water so the mixture is probably around 60/40 coolant heavy. No leakage anywhere. Should I now drain everything for the rest of the winter or leave it as is with more coolant now?

I also have a 60watt bulb on under the engine for the night and until temps get to 20F+