Hey all,

This morning i woke up to -32 celsius (47 with the wind chill

anyho, went out and fired u my 91 v6....let it warm up...then got in 20 minutes later...noticed a) no heat at all....nd b) temp guage was higher than normal..(getting up to 3/4..usualy rides at half or below)...started to go to work....heat guage kept going up..went a block..ame home...shut it down...had steam and a bit of coolant overflow.....took wifes van to work...


Anyone know ehat the heck...overheating in this???...did i freeze the thermostat??

any advice...i cant do much as its dropping to -35 without windchill..and no garage....so i just plugged it in

thanks

Paul

 

Sounds like coolant starting to freeze. Hopefully you lucked out and didn't cause any damage. Get your coolant checked out to make sure your coolant to water ratio is OK... before you crack your block. You should have at least 50% coolant in your system for those temperatures.

 

That is what happened when my Head Gasket blew. Check the antifreeze level, Check the oil for antifreeze.

Good luck.

 

i changed it a month ago...was 50/50......and it idled for 20 min...but didnt overheat..only when i started to drive.....and i only went a block....tturned around...came home and shut it down......
and the coolant that came out of the overflow tank wasnt frozen in the least.....

the day before, i didnt go anywhere..but it was the same brutal cold with a big wind whipping snow...wonder if i iced up the rad..and it got blocked

 

You in Calgary or something?

 

Yeah, he is. Paul, sounds like your thermostat is pooched or you have blockage somewhere.

I love having a garage. No plugging in, started fine...

 

Cool.

And I hear that... Mmmmm... Sweet, sweet underground parking...

 

Depending on the anti-freeze, you can get better cold protection with different ratios of AF to water. I run 67/33 on mine. Check your AF back label for a ratio table.

 

now arent we glad freezeplugs were invented? if the water freezes in the block, the plugs pop out. or so they were designed. do they work? i wouldnt know, the coldest i know is the mid 20s. id say change your thermostat. and youd better hope you didnt do any head gasket damage. gl

 

You've got blockage somewhere. Might have damaged the t-stat by freezing it. Other than that anything less than a completely frozen cooling system should have melted after 20min of idling.
As others have said, look at changing the anti-freeze/water ratio. I run a minimum of 60/40 and I'll probably only see -20F or +110F once per anti-freeze change. If I ever have a leak, I can top off with water (easy to find) without changing the freeze/boil points too much.

 

I'm thinkin ill just let it sit till the cold snap leaves....

Thank god its not always like this.....

i find it odd though that the blockage came from nowhere..on Saturday, truck ran fine...didnt go anywhere sun....then mon morn...no workee

 

my truck was overheating in the rain, ran fine when it was a lil warmer, coem to find out the fins on my water pump were rusty and had brokin off, flushed it a few times, radiator restored/new rod and new water pump and hoses and thermo. runs great now. but than again i had jsut bought it and poped the radiator cap and it was rusty nasty water, you never know.

 

It actually sounds like the water in the heater hoses and heater core froze. Either that or the tstat housing was so cold that the tstat couldn't open. And in those temps if it got hot at all then cooled off really quick you probably did some damage.

Don't they use block heaters up there?

 

It's cold outside, everyvehicle is going to have problems. with my old 92' Isuzu pick-up, it was up in the coal mines FAR up north on a mountain and it would get as cold as -60C and that truck would be SO col the diff fluid would freeze and the clutch pedal would be so cold it would stick down(depressed)! and i had my 91 Surf 3.0L V6 at around -30C, -49 with windchill in southern Alberta and it would start like it was -10!? i guess some people just don't have the best of luck with winter and engines.

 

Are you running cardboard in front of the radiator to help keep the antifreeze temp up? When I lived in Fairbanks, Ak, I had most of my radiator covered up.

 

the calgary cold is taking a toll on my rig too, it won't start at all! got it plugged in, tried boosting it, that didn't do anything, and the battery says its charged, its just about turning over but not quite.

I was thinking frozen(or partially)gas lines. any suggestions?


(sorry, i kinda hi-jacked your thread)

 

If it's barely turning over, try a battery blanket.

 

I had an old Jeep Cherokee that had the same issue in the winter. It would take the thermostat FOREVER to open. The temp gauge would get almost to the top and then it would finally open. I never really found the problem, but it had a new radiator, water pump, and thermostat in there.

I think it's just letting you know that it doesn't appreciate not being garaged

 

You probably already know this, but windchill will not affect your vehicle starting, so we're dealing with -32 deg C. A 45% Ethylene Glycol to water coolant has a freezing point of approx -30 deg C, a 50% Ethylene Glycol to water coolant has a freezing point of approx -37 deg C and a 60% Ethylene Glycol to water coolant has a freezing point of approx -52 deg C. If you're hitting temps of -32 deg C, you should be looking at increasing your glycol content to approx 60%. The main reason for this is that it gives you a buffer. You may think you have 50% glycol in your system, but maybe it's only 45, 46 or 47%, which would mean the temperature would have gotten below the coolant's freezing point.

As the temperature falls below the freezing point of the solution, ice crystals form in the water. This causes the remaining solution's glycol concentration to increase, so some of the solution remains in a liquid state. What you end up with is a flowable slush, with a much higher viscosity than liquid coolant. Water pumps are designed to pump liquid... not slush, so if you get slightly below freezing point of your coolant, you can have circulation issues in your system, which can cause overheating.

If this is what happened to you, after getting your engine nice and hot, if you let the truck sit there (not running), with the hot engine for a 1/2 hour or so (to give the slush a chance to re-liquefy completely), you should be able to start it up and drive it around with no problems (assuming that the temperature has come up above -25 deg C again). If this is the case, get some 60% coolant in that system of yours.

 

I am sure you checked this, but did you actually hear your block heater working after you plugged it in? Sounds to me like your block heater is not functioning properly if your motor is barely turning over or your electical outlet isn't working, or your battery is frozen.

Cheers and good luck.