Need help quick! Antifreeze frozen!
 

it got down to 7 degrees here last night, so i thought i'd check on my 76 sitting in my carport,i opened radiator cap and found frozen coolant, kinda like a slushie, i wanted to see if the engine would crank so turned the key and it fired right up. it sounded fine and in no time the froze coolant melted, i had tested this coolant in the fall and tester said good to 20 below, well that was way off!! so i let it run, water pump sounds good and its not leaking anywhere, i left the cap off radi and the old coolant ran out of the radiator top, so i put a whole new jug of prestone in, engine is runnig fine but i'm not seeing any flow in radiator, coolant just siting there, also no heat in car, no leaks, so what do i do now? should i let it idle more? temps gauge around 175 or so, with more idle time should heater start working? any advise would sure be a big help, thanks!!!

I would go get some polyethelyne sheeting from the home center and wrap it around the bottom of the car like a skirt, get it down on the ground to help cut the breeze out from under the car, then you can take a drop light and lay under the car, it will create enough warmth to hopefully help thaw things out some. the key is to try and trap some of that heat under the car and not let the wind take it away.

During the Korean war, my buds dad would build a fire under their catapillars to warm them up so they would start. Said they would sleep under them too....................:flaghalfmast:

thats a good idea, i'll keep it in mind. i just tapped on the t neck allitte, thought maybe the thermostat was stuck, sure enuff, it opened and now i got great heat/def now, no leaks, oil and coolant look good. man its scary to open your radiator cap and see it frozen!! but looks like everything good now. the old coolant was some of that 50/50 crap i put in last summer,not using that never again! i'll test this antifrezze here in a bit, hopefuly that'll be it.

I would still wrap it up, maybe not put the light under there but anything to keep the wind out from under the car can help

Hope everything turns out for you!

The 50/50 premix stuff is fine for most places other than where the weather truly gets extreme.

If you had to put a gallon of coolant in it, sounds like that could have been where your problem was.

Just the same, sounds like you got away lucky.

:thumbs:

Pick yourself up a hydrometer and verify the freezing point of your antifreeze. Trust this from an expert,-20F (did the conversion for ya) here this morning.

I agree. Sounds like the system was only 1/2 full. Most 50/50 quality anti-freeze is fine to about -40*F. In fact the mix is better than straight anti-freeze. Yes, he was lucky!

BTW, windchill here tonight is -36*F. So my daily driver (newish Impala) may be a treat in the morning.

well it now tests to a bit past 15 below, i did put a gallon of new prestone in, put before i did i removed about a gallon of the old coolant, so i think my level was ok, not sure what happened. i also tested with a new tester too. but now level looks good, blows great heat and no leaks

And it was only -25c here this morning too.... :eek:

Your 'old coolant' might have been straight water.

Looks like -29*C (-20*F) here tonight plus windchill. I'm staying inside.

There is still something going on. It should test to -37*F. What tester are you using?

Mike,

There is something very strange here. A quality 50/50 mix should show close to -40*F. I have seen -45*F and DexCool in my Impala become a slush puppy but it does melt down pretty quickly. His reading of -15*F is very unusual. That is not good enough in these temps.

Do you have your oil changed at one of the 'quick stop' places? If so, you may have been losing coolant and they "helped you out" by filling it up with just water. After a few times, you have little other than water in your system. Check for coolant leaks.

well the tester i'm using is peak antifreeze tester that i bought new today.i'll check it again, but the arrow was between 15 to 20 below. the new antifreeze is much more green than what was in there before. it was around july that i put most of a gallon of 50/50 in. maybe all the was in there was water. and it ended up watering down the 50/50 mix even more. thanks for again the help, in over 35 years since my first car, i've never had this happen! so with a gallon of straight new prestone, i should be around 45 below reading?

it was in the high 30s f this morning and i didn't want to get out of bed, i can't believe i used to live where it got really cold.
i don't know how you guys do it

An old trick that wokrs really well if you still have some concerns, is to put a drop light in the engine compartment, turn it on, and lower the hood. The warmth from that light will make all the difference until you can be sure you have the right mixture in there.

I would say about -35 to -40*F when that new Prestone is mixed in by circulation. You will be OK.

But he mixed it what ever was already in his rad. No telling what that was.

Did you hear on the news that we were 'the coldest capital on Earth' today? Wind chill (or 'windshield' as my old neighbour used to say) factor tomorrow AM will be -41. Time to put my long pants and a shirt on. :eek:

Back in the day, I had a buddy that would put the end of a plugged-in soldering iron in his radiator at night to keep it from freezing. He claimed it worked.

Yes, I saw that on the 6 o'clock news. Looks like -41 windchill (either *C or *F, same at that temp) tomorrow morning. Real temp -29*C (-20*F). That's brutal. But people in the Valley can take it with those wood-burning stoves. We city folks with natural gas fireplaces just manage to get by.

I can take this opportunity to start an oil thread. Yes, Mobil 1 5W-30 in my Impala does flow at these temps. The pour point is -42*C. Getting pretty close, however!

All kidding aside, I am glad my 1974 is in a climate controlled 60*F commercial facility until April. No worries there.

Good to read that the OP seems to have his antifreeze protection back into spec.

To all of our friends in the Great White North... stay warm. Those outside ambient temps may be good for some but I'm glad to be closer to the equator. Brrr...

The small block engine takes around 17 quarts of coolant. If you put most of a gallon in, then there were almost 10 quarts of whatever was in the system when you started. The good news is that the coolant in the radiator was only slushy. I doubt that you have any damage.

Unreal this cold today, thank goodness for 72 degree temp in my garage.
Makes putzing around with my baby all that much easier!!!

ji58,

How did things turn out for you last night? I hope well. We here saw -38*F windchill. A little milder tonight: ~-32*F windchill. A little hard on the nerves; even windshield washer fluid can turn to slush.

These temps are a good argument for Mobil 1 synthetic 5W-30 (I have in my DD 2007 Impala) or even 0W-30. I changed out the 5+-year-old battery for a very strong AC Delco PG34 in early December. Good choice. No starting problems.

I am not advocating Mobil 1 for older Corvettes! (I say that before Mike W. jumps all over me ;)). It was just a comment on the weather.

The lowest I recorded overnight was -28 so my -35 windshield washer fluid was Ok good decent margin.

'Windchill factor' doesn't lower the temperature of things below the actual temperature, it's just a 'feels like' number for humans.

Good clarification. And quite true. But it was d*** cold when I did the groceries today with the wind.

A real treat is to throw up a cup of boiling water into the air and see what happens.

:D That's just an average winter day in Alberta :D
Was up in Zama Lake in -48 and got hit with the prop wash when our Dash 8 was heading off the ramp, talk about wind chill, holy crap that was cold.

On the Topic of Antifreeze I always drain the block as well when i'm doing a change and usually mix it for -45c

That is certainly cold!! I saw that when I lived in Whitehorse, Yukon many years ago. We had cold alerts when we were told not to move too quickly or lung tissue would be damaged. Aircraft engines were protected by plastic envelopes and propane heaters. But that is long ago.

With the Corvette, it is probably -35*F or so protection. But it is sitting in heated 55*F commercial storage. I don't worry.

Would still like to hear from the OP.

well temp got down to around 12 or so, went out around noon, check out coolant in the radiator, nice green color and no freezeing, fired up the car and ran it for awhile and no leaks, and good heat/defrost,thankfuly its going to get to about 50 starting monday, even sat and sun looking to be above 32, thanks to the corvette gods above!! i dodged a BIG bullet on this one!! also thanks to all here on the fourm.]