Hoping the cold won't **** the motor

[SHOYAY]

Checked the antifreeze and it's good to 15 below. I don't have the chance to change it or have it put inside tonight. The temp is suppose to get down to 15-20 below tonite. Last I knew the temp has to stay at that temp for many hours to freeze and crack the block. Think it's safe?

 

[TwistedMunky]

I know its bad, but I had a leak in the rad and was using water. My motor has frozen twice in two years. This year our 90 and 93 froze at the same time. I took almost a week to thaw them out. I was procrastinating and the weather beat me to it. Every time it pushes antifreeze out the upper hose, and makes a frozen river to the tranny. So three motors in 2 years, I'm very lucky but I never even had touch it after the thaw.

 

[Ishodu]

If your worried that much just suck out half a gallon tough the rad cap and replace it with pure coolant. Or Just set your alarm and get up and start it ever 3 hours or so for a few mins.

 

[crazy_canadian]

If I was scared about the cold, I'd just let the engine run overnight.
Heck, sometimes I left my truck running for hours to keep heat in the cab when Im working outside, and it burns almost half a gallon per hour. And it's worse to let idle a diesel than a gasser on a long period of time at normal idle speed.

If you're sure it'll freeze, let it idle, set the heater on low, turn off radio and lights, lock the doors and have a nice night of sleep.

 

[rubydist]

if the antifreeze is good to -15, you don't have to worry at -20 with it just sitting. what happens at -15 is the stuff starts to gel and it won't flow through the radiator very well, so the engine starts to overheat. however, it won't expand enough at -20 to crack anything.

 

[SHOYAY]

Thanks rudydist. Right now where the car is sitting its totally covered and surrounded by snow, hoping in a weird way that will insulate it a bit lol . The weatherman says itll hit bout 20 below for about an hour in the early am before the sun comes up, so it wont be 20 below for very long.

 

[91PDXmocha]

U can buy a magnetic or inline hose block heater for less then 25$ would probably help

 

[HotRodKid]

i froze my lebaron motor by forgetting i had only water as a coolant. all it did was pop the crossover to the water pump out of place far enough to give me a steady leak. I did more damage fixing that engine then the freezing did (stupid 3.0 chrysler design makes it easy to drop a nut down the intake)

if the antifreeze is good to -15, you don't have to worry at -20 with it just sitting. what happens at -15 is the stuff starts to gel and it won't flow through the radiator very well, so the engine starts to overheat. however, it won't expand enough at -20 to crack anything.

i had almost forgotten about that. ice is its "largest" at 32*, after that it starts to obey the laws of nature that everything else obeys and starts to shrink as the temp drops lower.

 

[SHOYAY]

It made it thru the night and did not freeze up, the temp hit a low of 23 below. I checked the af today and it was good til 37 below. guess I was a little over worried lol.

 

[Racer X]

I read this thinking the temps you were talking about were in ºC.

You're in NY.

-23ºF, that's insane. I can't even wrap my head around how cold that is.

 

[TopGunnYFZ]

I read this thinking the temps you were talking about were in ºC.

You're in NY.

-23ºF, that's insane. I can't even wrap my head around how cold that is.

Try snowmobilin in -40-50* seat foam turns into a more concrete consistancy! Lol good to hear she toughed out the cold!

 

[SHOYAY]

lol racerx 23 below celcius, i cant imagine that lol, no thank you
thanks topgunn

 

[rubydist]

fyi, -40F = -40C

 

[SVOFANATIC]

lol racerx 23 below celcius, i cant imagine that lol, no thank you
thanks topgunn

Believe it or not -23 celcius is warmer it's -9 Fahrenheit.

 

[SHOYAY]

-23f = -30 c

 

[Art5]

yeah, I've took a drunk walk at -27*C this winter already. Kinda forgot how cold that was.

 

[sho_ted]

monday morning it was -26F here.