ENGINE FROZE.. How to access the damage.

[rmsnoel]

Its minus 13celius and your on your way to work. Your car heats up in 5minutes but still no heat from the incar blowers,, then,, suddenly the tempature hand rises to the top of the guage and you think DAMN.

It then drops back to halfway. You stop immediately and let it cool down. Your radiator is empty and when you add a litre of coolant to it everything seems to be ok. But where did the litre of coolant go?? There are no leaks, the frost plugs appear dry and you cant tell if the white smoke from the exhaust is steam or not. Just in time for christmas.

I had my water/coolant ratio mixed to minus 20celcius. Its not mixed to minus 60celius but how do I know if Ive blown the headgasket or cracked the block or what?

 

[cheshireglanza]

any water in your oil should be yellow colour on your dip stick

 

[rmsnoel]

No water in the oil thank god but then I topped her up and started it with rad cap off it foamed up abit but quickly cleared away. Trying to figure out where the litre of coolant went and praying its not headgasket gone.

 

[steveatyork]

Has a core plug popped out????

 

[jjayokocha]

I had the exact same problem this morning, i remote started the car from the house and then heard it struggling. Switched it straight off and noticed the temp needle was at half way after about 4mins. Turned out to be the bottom rad hose was frozen the whole way up into the engine. I had only put a new coolant with anti freeze in the car about 3 weeks ago.

To solve the problem i removed the bottom hose when it connects to the engine and filled it with boiling water from the kettle and left it to work its way down the hose for a while. Then connected it all back up and refilled the rad with COOLANT & BOILING WATER again till full, also noticed the overflow tank completely frozen aswell.

So i carefully started the car again and kept an eye on everything for about half hour before i headed out. All going grand again and everythign checked and perfect. Tonghit though when i have the puppy out for toilet breaks im gna remote start the car and let it go off after 10 mins itself.

 

[churcherj]

I had the exact same problem this morning, i remote started the car from the house and then heard it struggling. Switched it straight off and noticed the temp needle was at half way after about 4mins. Turned out to be the bottom rad hose was frozen the whole way up into the engine. I had only put a new coolant with anti freeze in the car about 3 weeks ago.

To solve the problem i removed the bottom hose when it connects to the engine and filled it with boiling water from the kettle and left it to work its way down the hose for a while. Then connected it all back up and refilled the rad with COOLANT & BOILING WATER again till full, also noticed the overflow tank completely frozen aswell.

So i carefully started the car again and kept an eye on everything for about half hour before i headed out. All going grand again and everythign checked and perfect. Tonghit though when i have the puppy out for toilet breaks im gna remote start the car and let it go off after 10 mins itself.

it sounds like youve been very lucky mate, but i would NEVER put boiling water into a freezed rad or on any pipes, if the temperature of the water is too hot you could do more damage and cause something to crack, warm water would be better, although letting the engine bay warm to a mild temperature is better. hot water also freezes faster than cold water aswell. i had this happen to me a few weeks ago, i had to let the car thaw out and i blew hot air into the engine bay to let it defrost slowly to ensure nothing cracked. luckily for me i was ok.

if the block is cracked it will just leak, the chances are if its cracked youve buggered the water pump aswell so you should be able to tell easily. if the head gasket has gone i believe steam will be coming out the engine

 

[jjayokocha]

The rad was warm by the time i had put the water into it, and with adding the coolant it had dropped the boiling water to warm cause i mixed them in a drum before even putting them into the rad. Yes i was lucky, but i forgot to mention i poured luke warm water over the hoses to help speed up the thawing process.

As i said last night when bringing the puppy out for toilet runs i remote started then car @ 2am & again @ 5am and let it switch off itself after 10mins which this morning seems to have worked as all pipes are normal and so are the water levels.

 

[conalmcn]

Last year my engine froze water pipe from radiator was rock hard, was the longest two days of my life, your not really supposed to thaw it out too quick as the extreme temperature change could damage the block by its self so i let it thaw naturally, thankfully it was ok.

 

[popsy09]

this just happened my runaround and i had anti- freeze in it lol

 

[gorganl2000]

i find this discussion interesting
i live in a a tropical climate...mostly warm/hot all year round

i always thought anti-freeze meant exactly that
but from listening to you guys, it seems even with anti-freeze that the engine can still freeze up?!?!?

 

[churcherj]

i find this discussion interesting
i live in a a tropical climate...mostly warm/hot all year round

i always thought anti-freeze meant exactly that
but from listening to you guys, it seems even with anti-freeze that the engine can still freeze up?!?!?

well anti-freeze should be resistant to -30 or something i believe, so it shouldnt freeze in most situations over here. it may be possible that people have mixed it with water and therefore the concentration is weaker causing it to freeze up.

 

[popsy09]

well anti-freeze should be resistant to -30 or something i believe, so it shouldnt freeze in most situations over here. it may be possible that people have mixed it with water and therefore the concentration is weaker causing it to freeze up.

yup the mix in my astra was not strong enough my glanza is 50/50 water antifreeze

 

[churcherj]

yup the mix in my astra was not strong enough my glanza is 50/50 water antifreeze

i thought that would be the case the pink stuff that goes in my radiator is a mixture of coolant/antifreeze etc which is already pre-mixed to the correct concentrations to prevent it freezing and to ensure it cools efficiently in the summer. you just pour it all in, no need to concentrate with water. seems to have worked, i cant see that freezing up for shit

 

[weeJohn]

i thought that would be the case the pink stuff that goes in my radiator is a mixture of coolant/antifreeze etc which is already pre-mixed to the correct concentrations to prevent it freezing and to ensure it cools efficiently in the summer. you just pour it all in, no need to concentrate with water. seems to have worked, i cant see that freezing up for shit

Have a look at the container it came in, all engine coolant has a minimum operating temperature. Anti freeze can be diluted to any concentration so it provides protection down to the temp you require it to, the downside is, anti freeze decreases the ability of water to cool as it increases the size of the molecules of the cooland and reduces its ability to dissapate heat from the coolant pathways.

 

[George611]

You have to mix it with water normally 50/50 otherwise it can corrode the coolant pipes, but i tend to wack more antifreeze in than water 70/30 norm. People tend to top there coolant up through the year with just water which weakens the mixture personally i change the coolant every year cant go wrong havnt had one freeze up on me yet reached minus 12 here the other night.

 

[jjayokocha]

I took out all the water/coolant today, i think my problem was i used 50% coolant that is already watered down & 50% water. I bought a bottle of concentraded anti freez today and mixed that with water so hopefully it should sort it out. It's good for up to -40

 

[Wuldo]

never expose somethong that is frozen to quick shock of heat like boiling water you will cause stress on whatever ur trying to defrost which could then cause hairline cracks and all sorts of problem let it defrost in a cntrolled way aka put it in a garage overnight