how do you thaw out a buick????

[Trey]

ok, so i live in the desert and as we are fully focused on how to keep a car cool, i messed up and didnt check the coolant mixture in prep for the cold weather. obviously it wasnt enough because my upper radiator hose feels like its full of slushy and my radiator cap is frozen to the tank. my question is whats the best way to thaw it back out to check and see if its done any damage?? do i let it thaw slowly with the warmer weather starting tomorrow, should i place a heater under the hood, should i get her started and let the engine warm up??? i have never had to deal with this before and i dont want to take the risk of doing any futhur damage.

we dont usually run a full mixture around here because below freezing is very rare, and the more water in the mix the better it cools in the desert sun. but the past 2 days we have seen temps in the negative numbers and wind chills that brought it down into the negative teens. these temps have been setting record after record for the region and up to this week were absolutely thought to not be possible here. in any case, i should have thought about checking it, but i didnt. now i hope i havent ruined this motor over the screw up. any advice on getting my buick thawed out would be greatly appreciated.

[David G]

I'd get some heat going asap, before the slush turns solid! Do NOT wait! I don't think starting it up would be the best choice.

[The German]

Hope you did what David recommended.

What I want adding here is : I´m sure that´s always much better having the coolant mixture in the engine b/c the anti-freeze fluid is not only good for keeping the engine undamaged when temperature goes below the freezing point, it´s also important for fighting against corrosion !!
All engines have some frost plugs which are an insurance for the case that the coolant mixture freezes and preassure increases inwards of the engine; then these plugs are pressed out allowing the coolant to flow out and this way reduce the inner preassure to such a low level that the engine will not get some more serious damage. So if your water freezed out some of your frost plugs around the engine surely will be pressed out - have a look for before starting your next trip ! Probably one or more of them came out only a little bit b/c preassure went not high enough for a complete opening but when you are driving the raising water preassure will press them out further more and together with the cars vibration suddenly a plug will pop out which causes a fast loss of water of course !

These frost plugs often are corroded b/c of the lack of anti-corrosion fluid in the water and then they get leaking which always is a risk of course. So my advice is: fill every water based cooling system of a cars engine with enough anti-freeze which works as an anti-corrosion fluid too !!! Added : ... and replace the mixture every 2-3 years b/c the anti-corrosion function of the fluid dies out with time !

[Trey]

i know all about the anti freeze and its properties, and i do agree with what you have said. i run a minimum mixture along with a lubricant/anti corrosive normally. i also do a flush about every other year and refill with fresh fluids, but in this car i haven't had the time to get to that point yet, and never gave it any thought when the storm came in. it doesn't look as though the freeze plugs have moved any, and nothing has hard frozen. i was able to get the cap off, and its slush in the radiator and has a slight green tint to it, so i know there was at least a little anti freeze in it. i pulled off the heater hose on the block and its got some ice flakes but was mostly still water. im thinking the radiator took the beating because its exposed to the cold wind we had more then anything else. in any case, before work i rolled it around to the side of the house where it will be in the sun all day and not the shade, and when i get off im going to stretch out a cord and put a small space heater under the hood for the night. the lows are not expected to be below freezing past tonight, so i hope i will be able to get her all thawed out tomorrow and start it up to see if i got any leaks.

[Trey]

well i got lucky, no leaks, no damage. wow what a relief. i have been stressing hard over this the past few days. shes all thawed out now, and drained till payday when i can get a better mix in there. the water did have a slight green tint, seems it had just enough in there to prevent a hard freeze in the temps we had. everything was slushy but nothing got hard frozen. man did i get lucky!!!

[73 Centurion]

That's great news. These cars had very good cooling systems and unless the engine is not running right you should be able to run a 50-50 mix without overheating problems. If you do see temps rise higher than you'd like I recommend adding a water wetter product. These make the anti-freeze stick to the surfaces better and enhance cooling.

I don't know the condition of your water but in my town the water has a lot of minerals in it. They are not good for the cooling system. I always use distilled water along with the anti-freeze. It's only a couple of bucks and it keeps a lot of crap out of the system.

There is some debate about "freeze-plugs". That's the name they are given but it's likely they are just openings used to clean out the block during the casting process. They can help let the anti-freeze out but it's not certain they will prevent damage.

Congratulations on getting out of this without damage.

John

[Trey]

my water is straight from the well, so there is no way i would use it in my system. the mineral content would make short work of the cooling system. as far as the water wetter goes, i do use it, i think its a great product. but its where i got the light antifreeze mixture from. it says on the bottle that the less antifreeze that's in the system, the better it works. in my climate i went with a 75/25 mix of water to anti freeze. thus far it has never been an issue. also up to now we hadn't seen temps like this in the past 50 or so years. we were 30 degrees below the normal temp for this time of year plus the wind chill. i doubt ill ever see temps like this again in my life, but you can bet ill pay a lot more attention from here on. we have major utilities shut down right now because they were never designed for weather like this, no power and no water to a lot of the surrounding areas, schools closed, business's asked by the city to shut down for a few days to conserve what little power and water they are generating. its been a mess. looking at mid to high 60,s today and its still kickin our butt from last week.

about the "freeze plugs" i have seen frozen blocks almost split in 2 that never moved a freeze plug. so im with you, i dont rely on them at all.

[Trey]

my water is straight from the well, so there is no way i would use it in my system. the mineral content would make short work of the cooling system. as far as the water wetter goes, i do use it, i think its a great product. but its where i got the light antifreeze mixture from. it says on the bottle that the less antifreeze that's in the system, the better it works. in my climate i went with a 75/25 mix of water to anti freeze. thus far it has never been an issue. also up to now we hadn't seen temps like this in the past 50 or so years. we were 30 degrees below the normal temp for this time of year plus the wind chill. i doubt ill ever see temps like this again in my life, but you can bet ill pay a lot more attention from here on. we have major utilities shut down right now because they were never designed for weather like this, no power and no water to a lot of the surrounding areas, schools closed, business's asked by the city to shut down for a few days to conserve what little power and water they are generating. its been a mess. looking at mid to high 60,s today and its still kickin our butt from last week.

about the "freeze plugs" i have seen frozen blocks almost split in 2 that never moved a freeze plug. so im with you, i dont rely on them at all.