Reminder check your Antifreeze

I almost made a big mistake the other day before it turned cold I got my truck out for one last drive and before I put it away for the winter thought Id better be safe and check my coolant it looked nice and green but only checked out to be good to 20 above that could have been bad come spring time (its not stored in a heated area). Just a reminder

 

I just checked the coolant in my wife's Rambler which hasn't been ran since it "bumped" into my parent's shop door with no brakes.... As expected, not a drop of coolant in the thing.

Sweet!

 

Oh, I had my O/T '78 Econoline's radiator freeze solid 2 years ago when it sat for 2 weeks during some nasty below 0 weather, took me 2 hours to thaw that damned thing out...which reminds me, I should go check that stupid thing out today, it's gonna sit all winter outside, so I better take good care of it...thanks for the reminder Mike...

 

Yup. My heart almost stopped a couplde years back, I'd swapped cars and ended up with a flatty powered A coupe, never really gave it a thought since I always keep my radiators filled with a 50/50 mix.

Went out in the shop after about 3 days of freezing temps and the frozen water had pushed the radiator hoses off the motor. Inside the hoses were solid ice but in the block it was still just slushy. Just lucky it didn't do any permanent damage.

 

Might think of checking it with a voltmeter too, to prevent electrolysis.

 

Are those cheap gl*** syringes with the colored balls a reliable test for the coolant effectiveness?

 

Also don't forget to toss some in your project blocks that are sitting outside. You might get a suprise like mine when I pulled the nailhead. (7" crack below the pet**** and freeze plugs)

 

I lost a nice motor in an old Mustang once. Was out of town, by the time I came back it had frozen hard. Shattered engine blocks might be the definition of screwed up beyond practical repair.....

 

Temperature of the coolant will effect the reading, so make sure it's at running temp before you check it. Some one on another board suggested that eve a 20% solution will protect most engines, as the coolant will gell but not freeze to the point where blocks could crack. But that free advice and worth every penny it cost you. Since I only drive mine in the summer, I run a 25/75 coolant to water mix. My car goe in the attached garage for the winter and it rarely if ever gets below freezing, I haven't really worried about it. However, I did fill my Studebaker truck with just water to do my test runs, so I guess a draining is in order till spring.

 

Good reminder!

Lost a fresh rebuilt 283 many moons ago during a deep freeze one winter. Nothing more heartbreaking that seeing a huge T shape crack in the side of the block in the spring!

it usually only takes one loss like that to become a little more detail oriented in subsequent fall seasons!

 

how often do you change antifreeze?my 99 f150 has 95000 0n the coolant. just wondering

 

happend to me one time i had a ford as a daily driver ..i used to work at 4 30 every day so i went outside to start the car and it was cold a fuk..crank the car over and it was like the battery was dead i couldnt figure it out ...tryed it again same thing it wouldnt crank ...popped the hood opend the rad cap ( water )..and it was frozen solid so i know that there was ice in the water pump..left it till later on that day had to miss work ...at about 12 in the afternoon it was back to water drained it out and filled it with antifreeze...THANK GOD nothing was damaged ...

 

Yeah just moved my econoline to get ready to work on it for the winter and moved some stuff were it was sitting and found a freeze plug on the floor awww hell got to put it back in and replace the hoses the fill it up and cross my fingers i flushed it out just before i put it away and for got to put in the antifreeze was not on the list of things to do this winter

 

Antifreeze isn't just to prevent freezing, it also lubricates and prevents rust. Them "Freeze Out" plugs aren't meant to freeze out, they are core plugs needed for the casting process.

 

-30 here last nite. I just use a 50-50 mix all year long.

 

The thing about antifreeze is if even if you have some, even like 10-20% it won't hard freeze, only slush. At least not at the temps around here. It'll freeze enough to cause overheating when driving but shouldn't crack blocks on sitting vehicles. Basically if it's green looking your stored projects should be OK. Least that's my experience.

 

I've been driving since '46, can remember many years when we couldn't afford glycol, always drained the radiator. When I started using it about 1951 or so, 50-50 has always been the benchmark, never let me down. Don't know for a fact, never saw it, but have been told that somewhere down around 20 below zero it will get slushy, but won't bust the radiator.

 

Why would someone not use antifreeze in the first place?

 

you know, living in Florida got me lazy (80 degrees today) I recently took a road trip to Ohio....day before I left (after I already checked the vehicle of everything I thought to check) I realized that I may want to check the coolant...luckly spec-d out to -30...

 

I have always relied on those things too. Wonder if they actually work?

 

good reminder.
i just put my car into heated storage for the "bad" couple of months (20-30 degree days) so i feel a little better.

 

No kidding there, -14 on the plaines of CO.

 

Colder than a well-digger's ***, and it's early, not even winter yet. We're in for a cold winter. I'm getting a battery heater today.

Yes. I ask myself that every time I buy a new one. I have never found a bad one but I still check every time I buy a new one. They measure the specific gravity. You can re***ure yourself, verify, by mixing a small quan***y, starting with a weak solution and work up to a 50/50 testing it as you go.

 

you are not aloud to run antifreeze in race cars.what i do is drain the rad.and block.then i put some in it and run it to get it in the motor.then in the spring i drain it and flush it about ten times to try and get it all out.it is a total pain in the *** but if something happens to blow at the track its way easyer to clean up.

 

I remember years ago that I only had water in the radiator on my Olds. It got cold and the radiator froze up solid. Luckily, it was still only slush in the block so it lived.

 

Thanks for the reminder, I'll have to look at it tonight.

 

Just bringing this up again for a reminder. Mine are going into storage today. Checked all 3 last nite luckily all were good to -10 or better which should be good enough to prevent any broken blocks.