Thread: Frozen Coolant

Same thing, that's what they're for. Welching coolant.

Hopefully not the one behind the flywheel.

It thawed over night. I am going to let it thaw all day too just to make sure nothing is still plugged. Then drain the coolant tonight and fill with the good stuff. Fingers crossed to see what happens.

Those things are not freeze plugs, nor welch plugs. They might be called that due to tradition/ignorance, but they are not to protect the block in the event that the coolant freezes. They may pop out if the coolant freezes, but they haven't protected anything.

Those holes are reliefs used during the block casting process to allow draining of the sand. This is true for every block made with a sand casting process (which is pretty much all of them).


squirlz it sounds like you've probably managed to avoid major damage since the block and head take longer to cool than the overflow bottle (because of all the mass). Keep the heater and blankets on it, and once you can I would get the mix closer to 50/50. The radiator may have cracked if anything...

Well instead of making a new thread i'll just post my morning events here. This morning I started up my car (my beater GA) to head in to work. Let it warm up for about 15 minutes before I headed out. I drove for about 10 minutes tops when I hear the belt squeal the temp gauge creeping up with the heat not working. At this point it hit me that the coolant prob was frozen. Sure enough coolant was leaking out from what I can tell was the over flow tank. I guess pressure built up, had no where to go so backed out the over flow. I turned it off and I could hear the left over pressure in the rad shaking it so I cracked open the rad cap to release the rest. My guess is everything is ok since I pulled over when i noticed things a miss and the rad system was still holding pressure after I turned it off. Far as i could tell there was no leaking other than what backed out of the overflow. Its sitting in a parking lot and im just going to go back with some coolant in a day or 2 when things warm up.

Looks like 1/2 of the coolant warmed up (cause it was steaming from out of the overflow) but a percent that was water froze somewhere in the rad preventing the coolant from flowing properly.

All sorts of fun going on today. you might want to start it up and let it idle later today to see if you can melt what is frozen. It sounds like the block did not freeze, but if it does it could get worse.

Well with temps going back up at least positive I figure tomorrow after work I'll mess with it. I got 3 other cars sitting outside (my G20, B13 and DET B14) all batteries disconnected sitting for winter. Once it warms up though just to be on the safe side I think i'm going to flush all of them and refill with like 45/55 water/coolant mixture to feel better about the mix since I just eye it up when i mix 50/50 for the most part.

I'm just worried by running it i'm going to make more of a mess until temps go back to at least being in the positive numbers lol

27 degrees down here. its cold as f*%k

Damn! In Orlando? That is f****** ridiculous! Saw 38 degrees one year at the Rolex 24, and the locals were losing it.

Don't forget about your oil. I put 0W30 in my daily winter beater. I don't think my car would have turned over with the 10W30 that was in it a month ago. As a sidebar, my starter gear got stuck on the flywheel ring for about 5 seconds this morning. It sounded like an air raid siren for a bit. Hopefully, the sucker starts to get me home, later on.