Block frozen solid - what do I do now?

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

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Yeah yeah I know I should have topped up the antifreeze.

Anyway it's frozen solid, so what can I do now? I figure I have 3 options:

1. Wait until the weather warms up - except I need/want to use the car.

2. Heat gun around the water pumps so they can turn, fire it up, warm it up for a minute or two, wait, repeat until thawed.

3. Take the fan belt off so the waterpumps don't turn, fire it up for a minute or two, rinse and repeat until thawed.

Oh, and keep fingers crossed...

Any more ideas? I don't know if there are core plugs on my engine. I can't see any cracks anywhere, I'm hoping the green icicle hanging out the water hose means it found its way out :p
 
I don't mean to sound unhelpful, but that's crying out to be left until the weather warms up. Unless it's a car you don't care about and/or you can generate some serious engine bay heat using some...big heaty thing.
 
I wonder how many cars are being driven with frozen cooling systems?!

What is the effect of doing so? Does the coolant not defrost before engine damage occurs?

A friend and I bought a 1966 Ford Mercury when traveling in the States and this died due to rust deposits around the freeze valves being disolved when we had the car filled up with new coolant before heading across Death Valley. We were told the freeze valves were there to prevent the engine block from being damaged if the collant froze and expanded, as the valves would pop out first. Do modern engines have such things?
 
mark66 said:
I wonder how many cars are being driven with frozen cooling systems?!

What is the effect of doing so? Does the coolant not defrost before engine damage occurs?
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Waterpump will face insta-death and depending on what its driven by cam/aux belt you could also face a whole other world of problems. Modern engines will also have a similar thing to freeze valves called core plugs. Literally metal plugs in the block/head that will pop out to prevent major damage. Personally I would go for option 1, its not ideal but easily the best bet in the long run.
 
Get heat gun. warm all pipes, infact try and take them off heat gun the block, I would also take off the fan belt so the water pump doesn't spin, that's if the pump is connected via fan belt.
 
mark66 said:
A friend and I bought a 1966 Ford Mercury when traveling in the States and this died due to rust deposits around the freeze valves being disolved when we had the car filled up with new coolant before heading across Death Valley. We were told the freeze valves were there to prevent the engine block from being damaged if the collant froze and expanded, as the valves would pop out first. Do modern engines have such things?
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Yup - called core plugs!
 
Leave a fan heater under the bonnet for the night maybe? And hope you don't come back to it in the morning to find it's caught fire...
 
burns said:
Leave a fan heater under the bonnet for the night maybe? And hope you don't come back to it in the morning to find it's caught fire...
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I have a feeling that Johnny's car doesn't have this "bonnet" you're talking about ;)
 
Hxc said:
I have a feeling that Johnny's car doesn't have this "bonnet" you're talking about ;)
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Ah yes, I was thinking of the Anglia. Pretty sure I have seen pictures of the new one with a bonnet, maybe it was when the PO had it. Plenty of room for some sort of a heater under there though I would have thought.
 
Clarkey said:
Propane space heater at the engine for a while. I'm sure I've seen them do it on ice road truckers so it must be good :p
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We did this with the mini. Worked a charm. Our space heater looks like a jet engine haha.
 
airconditionerhack.jpg


??
 
Don't leave it, you don't wan t it partially melting and re-freezing over and over.

Get it warmed up quickly, I like the sound of running with the pump not turning till it thaws.
 
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