Guest visualpoet Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 A couple of months ago I had to do an emergency radiator replacement in my Corolla. I was in a rush to get to work, so I just filled it with water andit slipped my mind until I got out of bed Sunday. FUCK ME! graemlins/nutkick.gif I haven't seen any cracks, the radiator itself isn't distorted that I can see, and I haven't seen any freeze out plugs on the ground under the car, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I got lucky and had some room for expansion. Anyone ever have an engine freeze like this before? What are my chances of escaping a cracked block? I've got a heat lamp on it, and the top half of the radiator is thawed out, plus with the temps supposed to be in the 40s tomorrow, I think it should thaw out by late afternoon. If it is cracked, I'm dropping a blacktop 4age in it, even if it means selling my SR5 and the 30 yr old Honda 360 to finance it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desperado Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Yes, I have had the brain fart like that. Motor: 350 010 block 4 bolt mains 486 casting heads .040 over bore Forged pistons (FelPro 3350 I think) steel crank carillo rods straight water and 10 below Motor went consistant 8.5's at pacemakers 1/8 mile DAMAGE block cracked in 7 places, 3 freeze plugs laying on ground. This included a large crack in the number 7 cylinder wall. The right side of the block with a large area pushed almost out of the block. Waterpump cracked, radiator totally screwed, hell even the hoses swelled up and the lower one burst. I have not pressure tested the heads yet. I am hoping that I dodged a bullet on them. I do have a new block to reassemble all this in. Just haven't had the motivation. That was the second one. It wasn't as bad as the first, it was FULL of water. 1990 Chevy Cadaver, 4 banger 2.0 motor, during blizzard of 93 went to work in the morning, it was 50 degrees outside, never thougth about what was coming. Temp dropped to like 20 below. Cracked or broke all this radiator lower hose thermostat housing thermostat manifold intake manifold (heated) head block in at least 3 places heater core (found that when it thawed out) even the coolant resivor was busted. Basically, if it had water in it, it was busted. So there is two brain farts. One hurt like hell. and it wasn't the cadaver either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mowgli1647545497 Posted December 20, 2004 Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 Yeah - you might be in trouble, because even if the water had room to expand, there's no guaranteeing the water will expand in *that* direction. Ergo, a glass of water with no top on it, if it freezes in a certain manner can crack the glass, even though the water *could* have expanded out the top. Add a turn or a twist or other direction change, like in a block passage, and well.... Its all in how the crystals grow. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest doggunracing Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Originally posted by Mowgli: I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.That's going to make it hard to type. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mowgli1647545497 Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 I type with my nose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest visualpoet Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 I got so lucky! Nothing seems to be wrong with the engine. She thawed out today. Started her up, let her run for a few, shut her down, let her set and transfer heat in case there was any left over ice in there. No leaks, no funny smoke coming out anywhere, and I drained the radiator and filled her up with a nice 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water! Started her up, let her run for about ten minutes and then drove her around for a little while. I REALLY dodged a bullet on this one! Thanks for the good thoughts! Hopefully I'm starting to get a little more free time, I've barely had time to keep up with my own site, let alone post all the places I usually do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex1647545498 Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 That's nice man. Good to hear. graemlins/thumb.gif Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bgbdbn Posted December 21, 2004 Report Share Posted December 21, 2004 Glad to hear there was no damage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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