Message text written by Scott Tilton
>So . . . any ideas what happened or how to start diagnosing it?
I thought that even if you had a pretty poor mixture of antifreeze and
water
in your system that you were protected to well below zero degrees.
I don't think it got THAT cold last night.
I'm trying to figure some way that I can rationalize that the thermostat
got
stuck closed or something and cause some weird behavior.
I'll be pretty pissed if the coolant froze and cracked something.
<
Scott, I had a similar experience with a 73 Pinto many years ago. What I
discovered was that Water/glycol doesn't freeze in the same way as pure
water. What you get is a slush that will not pump through the system but
doesn't freeze hard until it gets much colder so odds are the coolant in
the radiator wouldn't flow depriving your car of the cooling effects but
didn't freeze hard and crack open the radiator or freeze plugs. My advice
is wait for the weather to warm up and try it again and don't be suprized
if all is well.
Then change the coolant with some known 50/50 mix. I will open a fresh
bottle of coolant, pour half into an empty bottle and top up both with
water for a 50/50 premix. This way when I top up I am not diluting the
mixture.
Dave
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