Arggh!! my donor turbo is freezing up

[Ride_on]

The spare 940 that has been sitting at the side of the house for a year or so did have anti-freeze. I meant to drain it but forgot of course. Just checked it now its -7C and the coolant has turned into a slush puppy.

Hopefully its not gone solid anywhere, have just replaced the airbox with a 1.5KW fan heater, hopefully it will drain. Some water already came out so maybe it will have space for expansion.

Any advice? do I need to drain the head specially?

[Speedy88]

I'd avoid using the car. If you really need to then I've heard pouring a few boiling kettles over the head does the trick. Basically you want to heat the metal through

[volvodspec]

been in the same situation with a 1.4 last year, had a blown headgasket and refilled coolant with regular water wich was forgotten in the freezing weather untill i found out on a day off fixing the hg. replaced the cylinderhead while is wat at it, but that was because i wanted hardened valve seats.

i'd take a close look at the plugs that normally pop out of the engine if the coolant freezes, see if paint looks teared/ripped where they're slammed into the engine block etc.

if they're ok i guess try it. if it springs a leak on use you have to fix it anyhow, if it doesn't it saves a lot of work
drain all the water and fill it with coolant before you try it though.

[Ride_on]

The car isn't being used, its the donor engine for the 360 and its not feasible to start it now to defrost it and add anti-freeze. Just wanted to leave it empty after the heater defrosts it, and wondering if I need to specially empty the head.

I left a GLT, that was scrap, without anti-freeze and the engine seemed to seize up after a cold winter. I thought the block or head can warp once you get solid ice in there.

[Speedy88]

No I wouldn't expect so. Water takes up a smaller space as a solid, its normally people who try and start the engine that warp the head. The GLT might have seized as all the oil drained out of it?

[Chris_C]

No I wouldn't expect so. Water takes up a smaller space as a solid, its normally people who try and start the engine that warp the head. The GLT might have seized as all the oil drained out of it?

Not true dude, water is one of the rare things that expands as a solid. I've seen a few HG's blown through this

[Speedy88]

Wow, never heard of HGs going because of this before. Pretty sure I learned it in school but who remembers that

If anyone's interested as to why: http://www.iapws.org/faq1/freeze.htm

[magnumpi]

No I wouldn't expect so. Water takes up a smaller space as a solid, its normally people who try and start the engine that warp the head. The GLT might have seized as all the oil drained out of it?

Not true dude, water is one of the rare things that expands as a solid. I've seen a few HG's blown through this

Isn't that the point of a coreplug, or do 300's not have them?

[Ride_on]

No I wouldn't expect so. Water takes up a smaller space as a solid, its normally people who try and start the engine that warp the head. The GLT might have seized as all the oil drained out of it?

Not true dude, water is one of the rare things that expands as a solid. I've seen a few HG's blown through this

Isn't that the point of a coreplug, or do 300's not have them?

They do, Renault and Volvo engined ones. The point of a core plug is to block the gaps left when moulding the thing, they can also serve as freeze plugs which do relieve pressure from expanding ice. As the ice expands it doesn't necessarily do so through the core plugs, they are just weaker than the block/head. Ice does flow to some degree, but less so as temperature gets lower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_plug

The GLT had plenty of oil, but I never disassembled (completely) it to investigate so I could be wrong, it was fine before. I may have tried to start it when it was frozen, when maybe it might have relaxed when thawed.

Well I had the fan heater in the 940 engine bay all night, no more signs of ice at the water pump, so finger crossed it will survive the winter.

Anyway I would advise everyone to check their coolant isn't freezing in the morning, we are not used to these temperatures and anti-freeze has to be in good condition and at a decent concentration. It only keeps it specification for 2 or 5 years depending on the type. And the worst I have seen here is -7.5C so far.

[SteveP]

I reckon you'll be safe... you might blow a core plug but I guess that may be hard to tell unless you can see a visible leak. My girlfriends Skoda Felicia froze up this winter due to lack of anti freeze (after it started drinking coolant, fixed with K-Seal! ) but warmed it all up before starting and it's been fine since.

[Chris_C]

The last one I had to deal with was a punto, owner was complaining that it was hitting the temp gauge even in this cold

When I looked both rad hoses had slush puppies in them