Hi gang, Many of you are down south of Wisconsin. I just got off the phone with Wayne. He was in town buying antifreeze with Tally. Long story short, if you have a reasonable amount of antifreeze in your system, even if it crystalizes the antifreeze will prevent the usual hydrogen bonding that will cause a block to freeze and expand and crack. I always do at least a 50 / 50 mix which is supposed to be good to -34F but tomorrow morning if I care to check, I will find ice (green slush) in some of my dozen plus machines. In the past I always figured minus 28 degrees was the coldest I would start a vehicle. Don’t forget, antifreeze is also antiboil in the summer … DO NOT put straight antifreeze in anything. It will crystalize at low temps and if the thermostat sticks it will burn when the engine overheats … End of recommendations … This pic was from 2009
http://www.intergate.com/~mlarosa/images/woodgas/minus38.jpg
Peace out, Mike
There’s an extreme and a mild case of freezing that I’ve heard from the owners of unprepared vehicles. One was from the owner of an AMC Matador in the 80’s who moved from South Carolina to Grand Rapids, MI. After half of a winter from his old home, he started his car and rapidly had an oil light come on. The engine block became junk. A month ago a parts guy told me that his Arkansas truck from his grandpa was brought up to Michigan and stored in a barn. Come springtime, several freeze plugs were laying on the ground, but the engine was fine. AMC versus Chevy design.
Hi Doug, I can’t tell you how many freeze plugs I have tapped into peoples engines … Can you still buy a freeze plug ?? I don’t have a clue … I had a neighbor in Buffalo, NY in 1978 +/- that moved there from Macon Georgia. He had NO antifreeze in his truck. He would drain his water every night but he blew a plug one night. I had lined him up with plenty of work and he had money to buy antifreeze … I learned that you can paint a whole room with a 6" brush in an hour from him and cut in all he moldings etc with it. Way better than a roller … I’m glad that engine survived … Mike
Yes, those plugs are still available. They are called “core plugs” or Welch plugs. Look them up. They have an interesting history. They are also the same type of plug that is (was) often used to seal up external passages in carburetors.
For what it’s worth, you can buy rubber, expandable plugs at auto stores in various diameters to fill those core holes. This isn’t an endorsement for that sort of repair, just information.
Pete Stanaitis
Can you send some of that ice over here we are have record breaking high temperatures here in Australia.
GaryH, I’d be more than happy to trade you! -10 F (-23 C) here tonight…
Our highest maximum ever was broken by 4 degrees C, I have never even seen snow so I can’t say which is worse.
Never seen snow? Here was my view of the front yard this weekend! As much as I dislike humidity, I think I’m ready for spring weather…
Just make matters worse here had a storm yesterday and a lightning strike about 10 metres from the house, modem and 4 hard drives are dead. You might think I am crazy but I would love to play in that snow.
Sorry to hear about Mother Nature’s version of an EMP. Reminds me that I need to perform some backups! Snow is definitely fun to play in, provided you have a place to warm up afterwards!
Hey Billy, I’m wondering where you are in Kansas, I lived there till I was about 50, then I made the mistake of moving to Iowa. Raised in a small farm community in northwest part of state, after HS to Topeka for 18 years. I have family all over Kansas, 6 Brothers and Sisters. One Sister lives way out in Goodland, almost to the Colorado line, Brother in Council Grove. herb
Herb,
I’ll be going to Goodland maybe on the 31st. Taking my friend who is a Rock Island RR collector, he located some kind of switch light signal, so were planning a trip around the weather. I hear when it rains or snows out there its horizontal.
Goodland gets some very serious snow storms, my sis and bro-in-law still tell the story of this one storm about 30 years ago now that the snow blew over the house in such a way they couldn’t get the front door open, it was up past the top of the door, when they finally got dug out they had a tunnel from house to out by the driveway they had to walk though to get out to the drive. That is the wildest snow storm I’ve ever heard of. The storms come over the Rockies and dump on Goodland Kansas with a vengance.
I found out the hard way backing up onto another hard drive installed in the PC is not a good idea, best to use an external hard drive and disconnect it when done.
Hey Herb, I’m about half way between Salina, KS and Wichita, KS. I moved here for work about 8 years ago from SE New Mexico, and still miss the mountains!
Gary, thanks for the advice. I’m looking at a 4TB USB drive I can dump to and unplug.