Coolant frozen?

Pimpin Dsmstyle · 12-20-2004

I never park outside. Well Saturday night I parked outside because I was tired and lazy. I came out on Sunday morning, started the car, and made my way inside the house. I walked out 10 minutes later and my car was smoking like hell. I popped the hood and noticed that my overflow tank was just boiling and what not. My temp was high, but not over heated yet.

I pulled it into the garage, let it sit for awhile. I came back a few hours later and poured 50/50 HOT water and antifreeze in the cooling system. It didn't seem to smoke ( I let it get to temp, and the only weird thing was that it was idling at 2k.) Could it have been that my either my coolant was frozen from having too much water compaired to antifreeze? Could it have been my thermostat was frozen shut? Ideas? I do not want to drive it until I know this problem is fixed.

dsm95gsxer · 12-20-2004

I've done that before, my car would be fine if I drove it everyday but once I left it for a day without starting it it froze solid. It took well over a hour to defrost it (idling) and it probably took out my head gasket because I let it get two hot (late for work) I was driving the piss out of it.

TGPilot · 12-20-2004

Easiest way to confirm water/anti-freeze concentration would be to go to local auto-parts store and pick up a tester. The tester measures the specific gravity of the mix and tells you freeze point and boiling point (they work hand in hand).

If your "coolant" actually froze then your mix is not strong enough. I normally run water-wetter in the summer months, then flush and replace with 50/50 mix in the fall-spring months...

unreal808 · 12-20-2004

I just picked up a 91 talon, I checked the coolant and it was good for +25, damn.. so I replaced the T-stat and coolent, I'm Surprised it didn't freeze lastnight.