Frozen motor.

[Biggershaft96]

Soo this morning i found out my antifreeze wasnt up for the job and had frozen at some point this weekend. Soo im not sure the extent of the damage and im not really concered about that motor and what may be worng with it because i have a spare. Anyway i have a few questions. I had a 50/50 mix of genaric autozone coolant in it.


-what kind of coolant do you guys run?

- should i mix it stronger than 50/50?

- should i change the oil if by some miracle everything else checks out fine? Only reason i ask is it went from -13 to 260+ degrees in about a half hour.

 

[michael hurd]

When I did some cooling system service a few years ago ( changed the water pump as preventive maintenance ) I flushed the entire system with a garden hose, and filled it up with generic green Prestone. Yes, I know it's not ELC, and higher in silicate.

Mix stronger than 50/50, that would be a "hard NO".

If you have somewhere warm to work, I would do a cooling system pressure check before anything else. Chances are that it slushed up ( not actually froze ) and the flow was restricted.

The only thing I would worry about if it got really hot would be the integrity of the flexible injection tubes inside the intake.

On your side, the inlet air temperatures was colder, so they 'should' be OK.

On the off chance that you started to push a freeze plug out of the block, it makes sense to pressure test the system. A block heater will make a convenient replacement if need be. As long as the element doesn't contact the cylinder barrel, you can use it to replace a frost plug regardless of the position on the side of the block.

 

[Biggershaft96]

When I did some cooling system service a few years ago ( changed the water pump as preventive maintenance ) I flushed the entire system with a garden hose, and filled it up with generic green Prestone. Yes, I know it's not ELC, and higher in silicate.

Mix stronger than 50/50, that would be a "hard NO".

If you have somewhere warm to work, I would do a cooling system pressure check before anything else. Chances are that it slushed up ( not actually froze ) and the flow was restricted.

The only thing I would worry about if it got really hot would be the integrity of the flexible injection tubes inside the intake.

On your side, the inlet air temperatures was colder, so they 'should' be OK.

On the off chance that you started to push a freeze plug out of the block, it makes sense to pressure test the system. A block heater will make a convenient replacement if need be. As long as the element doesn't contact the cylinder barrel, you can use it to replace a frost plug regardless of the position on the side of the block.

Well hopefully the slush is all that happened then. I figured the impeller on the water pump wouldve chewed that up. Are you talking about shell rotella ELC? Is that the good stuff? Im not looking to spend $40 a gallon on waterless but if thats the next best thing ill take it. Do you have a link for a block heater that presses into a freeze plug hole? The only ones ive seen are pipe threaded in.

 

[michael hurd]

All of the block heaters for these old engines have a screw that is threaded through a piece of flat ( more like a slightly U-shaped ) stamped yellow metal.

The block heater will look like on pg 11 of this catalog.

http://phillipsandtemro.com/userfiles/file/2015 Zerostart Catalog.pdf

Phillips / Temro 3100057, 1.625" diameter. For the life of me, I have no idea why the catalog doesn't list that application.

Edit: found it, was not looking under the light truck section. 3100057 is the correct number.

Alternatively, you can use the GM one... not cheap though.

http://www.jegs.com/i/GM-Accessories/338/12371293/10002/-1

The outside is sealed with an O-ring, and there is a rubber seal on the screw as well.

Even though these engines were produced with Dex-cool formulated low silicate coolant, I am using regular coolant, having flushed the entire system.

 

[Biggershaft96]

So will that just go in place of any of the freeze plugs or does it have a dedicated spot? i dont blame you for steering away from dex cool. I dont think its bad stuff but there is definatly better out there

 

[michael hurd]

You can install it in any of the holes in the side of the block, as long as it is clocked so the element will not contact the cylinder barrel.

Here in Canuckistan, we typically used dual heaters on real old junk, like my 83 olds Gutless with a swapped in 350. That started great when it was plugged in with dual 600 w elements.

As far as Dex-cool goes, the only real problem was with the OEM formulation, it was fine until the system was open and regular tap water was added. ( typically during PDI at a dealership )

After that is when the problems started. Today's longer life ELC's do not have those same teething problems.

 

[83GMCK2500]

You can exceed 50% coolant, there is a table on the back of coolant jugs with a temp chart and a do not exceed limit. Dexcool has a 70% limit IIRC.

 

[Biggershaft96]

Well i think my previous mixture was really weak so im gonna start out with 50/50. My front freeze plug on the passenger side has a hole in it now and its smokin like a freight train. Ill probably just throw a new set of freeze plugs in my spare motor. Im buying a set of heads off of craigslist tomorrow. Hopefully have it ready to stab in on christmas day since its supposed to be 44. Thanks for the help guys, ill definatly keeping a better eye on the coolant and i orded one of the block heaters. I never woulda known about those lol. Buuutttt the new block is a fresh .030 over bottom end, im having a local shop rebuild and resurface the heads and throw them on because im in a hurry and ive only done valvetrain work once. Should be like a brand new motor so i got that goin for me.

 

[Biggershaft96]

@michael hurd hey when you say injection tubes do you mean tubes on the spider injector?

 

[michael hurd]

@michael hurd hey when you say injection tubes do you mean tubes on the spider injector?

Yes, that is what I am talking about. When the engine overheats, the tubes can become brittle or fail.