Antifreeze freezing?

[ollieboy]

My cars antifreeze has ice crystals forming in it and solid frozen at the radiator cap, is this normal? Theres also an antifreeze icicle hanging from the thermostat housing and near where the pipe joins radiator from thermostat housing. I'm guessing thats not normal. I don't understand though, the antifreeze is fresh about 2 months ago and is in the correct quantities.

Also, what sort of damage is possible with water freezing in engine? I want to know to check for the worst possible outcome.

Cars parked in a place where temperature doesnt get above zero all day, permafrost everywhere and even in a carport water freezes solid.

[big_boy]

i would be checking that antifreeze for freezeing level

also its not the supercheep "coolent" is it note this stuff is just water & food colouring

& if it douse freeze propley you will pop all your frost plugs if your lucky & posably crack block,head,radator,heater core etc (in other words it will do a $&#$% load of damadge if it freezes propley)

[sergei]

you cannot get right quantaty unless you account for water in the engine and heater core. Use distilled water and 50% mix of high quality antifreeze (like castrol for example). Drain old stuff from block and heater core, and flush it with fresh water, so the system will befree from old stuff. Fill the dry system with pre-mixed new antifreeze.

[gmacrae]

jeezuz thats some cold weather, but for a start your radiator cap and thermostat housing shouldnt be leaking, unless the whole system is freezing up and forcing it out those points... in which case, keep a close eye on the frost plugs too

try upping the antifreeze ratio to lower the freeze point. Keep in mind though, more antifreeze makes the coolant less efficient at actually transferring heat, combat this with a bottle of redline water wetter

[hsmidy]

yeah take ya coolant ratio up to %60, must be some shit coolant or ya mixture must have been right off for it to freeze like that

[ollieboy]

It's Caltex brand coolant.

I just noticed the water pipes have ice cream consistency water in so hopefully its not too bad, hopefully.

I wont be near a town til about friday so I might try and keep the engine bay warm using some sort of clever technique until I can sort out whats going on.

Cheers guys, I didnt think it was normal and I'm considering writing to caltex because I definitely put the right ratio in because I knew I was going to be in bloody cold weather. I didnt need to account for water already in the system because I had taken heater core, engine and radiator out a wee while ago to recondition it all and put them in dry.

[big_boy]

hsmidy a point to note is antifreeze is different to coolent at repco & supercheep etc there coolent is exactly that coolent not antifreeze

[rolla_fxgt]

If its brand new antifreeze then there's no way it should freeze, i'd definately be ringing caltex & asking them what they're doing to there antifreeze.

& what temp are you leaving your car in? I've left mine in -15c & it froze to the ground but engine was fine, so i'd say either your in a freezer/antartica or its not anitfreeze!

[fivebob]

Doesn't sound right if it was mixed to the correct ratio.

You didn't by chance dilute premixed antifreeze did you?

[ollieboy]

Nah, I remember the bottle saying to mix with water. Good point though, I know someone who did that with their John deere antifreeze.

[fivebob]

Hmm, well unless you put just straight antifreeze in that was the most likely alternative as 25% solution will freeze at -10°C

[ollieboy]

Thats interesting and good to know. It hopefully should be all good now, I decided to travel and get some good quality antifreeze, will see tomorrow morning.