Help With Peace of Mind

[dieselmatt]

I was going to do my coolant flush today and change to EC-1 coolant, but I have a hold up with parts. I was supposed to pick up my replacement thermostat yesterday, but because I waited 7 days between calling to make sure they set one aside for me and actually pulling it out of the truck they sent it back to the warehouse. So, I'll be picking the thermostat up today. **side note - for those of you reading previous posts about temps, the manufacturer says this thermostat is supposed to open at 192* so we'll see if changing it for a third time changes the temps I'm getting**

On to my question. There is no way I will be able to do a full flush with restore and restore + in the time I will have. I can't get the new t-stat until 10am and it is getting dark here at 4:30pm these days. So, I was going to wait until tomorrow. However, I was thinking about going ahead and flushing all of the old coolant out and back flushing the oil cooler today, but that would leave just plain 'ol water in the block with freezing temps outside tonight. ACTUAL QUESTION: Will it be ok or should I just wait to do everything tomorrow?

[OUMX117]

Is it going to get below freezing tonight? Do you park the truck outside or inside? Do you have a block heater? I wouldn't worry about it if it's not going to freeze overnight, or if you are parking it inside. It won't hurt anything overnight.

[dieselmatt]

Originally Posted by OUMX117

Is it going to get below freezing tonight? Do you park the truck outside or inside? Do you have a block heater? I wouldn't worry about it if it's not going to freeze overnight, or if you are parking it inside. It won't hurt anything overnight.

Yes, it is supposed to get to 25 tonight and it won't fit in my garage so she is parked outside. I do have a block heater and use it pretty much every day, but I wasn't sure whether the block heater will heat up all of the water enough not to freeze or if it just heats the portion of the water around the heater.

[howell_jd]

I would not recommend leaving straight water overnight in your cooling system in below freezing temperatures.

Yes, you can plug in the truck's block heater and keep the water from freezing in the block but what of the water in the radiator, hoses, and degas bottle? Those would freeze and rupture possibly. The radiator is not inexpensive and has quite a few plastic elements more easily damaged by the expansion of water during freezing than you might suspect.

There is no circulation without the water pump running unless you have a hydronic heater - if so set the timer for a couple of 1-hour runs late tonight and early tomorrow AM.

The only way to make this work if you are committed to it is to get the truck engine quite warm and then do that again before the temperature falls below freezing until you are prepared to continue the flushing process.

Take precautions if you have started: plug in the block, run the hydronic heater by program or if you don't have one start the truck a couple of times tonight.

Good luck.

Jonathan

[alwil]

Why not just drain it and leave it empty till morning......no worries about water freezing then.

"You know nothing Jon Snow"

[howell_jd]

Draining doesn't empty the system fully...you could use compressed air and charge the system (which could also cause damage on its own) and still not get all the water out.

Straight water in the system during freezing temperature is not a great idea.

The protocol used by the Army in sub-freezing arctic weather (even with vehicles having a properly assessed coolant mixture) is to periodically start the engines and idle (not ideal but the alternative is definitely worse) for a period of time. Repeat as needed. This also keeps the battery cells from rupturing.

The 25F temperatures aren't the same degree of arctic weather that generates the protocol I've described but below-freezing temperatures still create ice and water expands when frozen...breaking things readily.

Ounce of prevention and pound of cure sort of thing.

Jonathan

[dieselmatt]

I appreciate the tips guys. What I decided to do what to drain everything except the block. I'm going to use the block heater to keep the water in the block from freezing and heat the oil so it will be easier to start in the morning to continue the process. I got as far as using the Restore and flushing it out before it got dark so in the morning I'll reconnect the lower radiator hose and fill her with Restore + and continue the whole process.

[villestrip]

So how did the flush go? Did you end up backflushing it also? And did you get your coolant filter installed?

[dieselmatt]

Everything went well. It took a few more flushes than I expected to clear out the Restore and Restore +, but that is why I used tap water for those flushes and switched to distilled at the end.

I did back flush the oil cooler. That was more for peace of mind than anything else. I really didn't want to rebuild that thing. Lucky for me the flushes all came out pretty clean and my deltas are actually lower now than they were before.

I haven't installed the coolant filter yet because I don't have it. It is supposed to get here sometime today so I will install it either today or tomorrow.

[villestrip]

Did you order from Performance Machine? I'm still waiting on mine. What procedure did you use to backflush the oil cooler?