should I sleep tonight? help! please!

[floridaboatboy]

my 2004 350 is sitting in the driveway with distilled water in the cooling system because I am on my final run of distilled before draining and filing with some ec1 coolant. from working with marine blocks I know that water in the block plus cold can equal a cracked block. We are suposed to get a hard freeze tonight here tonight in central Florida and im kinda freaking out! can I drain it completely or should I run it every few hours? or maybe get it real hot before I go to bed? thanks!

[arbarlow]

Can you plug her in?

[howell_jd]

Plugging in will only protect the block, not the hoses or the radiator. I would run it several times and avoid letting the coolant temperature reach mid 30s combined with plugging in to extend the time between high-idle runs. This is a technique I used as a Company Commander for my Engineer equipment in Korea during many hard winters with 20 degree below 0F temperatures.

Jonathan

[floridaboatboy]

thanks guys I plugged her in and crossing my fingers. I had no idea about the plug but Google got me up to speed real fast. and I found out that it is going to be a low of like 29 so not too terribly low I heard it was gonna be more like 20.

[arbarlow]

Low of 29 and plugged in.....i bet you won't have any issues.

[floridaboatboy]

just out of curiosity should it light somewhere when the heaters are working to let you know that they are on?

[Young-SC-Owner]

nope......

[amdriven2liv]

Do you have a ECT gauge? Not the stock temp gauge. An hour of being plugged in will tell you.

Or go look at your meter before plugging in and then look at the speed after. If you have a spinner on the electrical meter.

[scha0786]

Originally Posted by howell_jd

Plugging in will only protect the block, not the hoses or the radiator. I would run it several times and avoid letting the coolant temperature reach mid 30s combined with plugging in to extend the time between high-idle runs. This is a technique I used as a Company Commander for my Engineer equipment in Korea during many hard winters with 20 degree below 0F temperatures.

Jonathan

-20F - 0F hard winters

I'm up on the north slope of Alaska right now and thats the high for the day. -60-30F air temp is not uncommon up here, not to mention you throw in a little wind with an area that has no trees for hundreds of miles, hard winter your funny.

Just joking around with ya, anywho pluggin her in and you should be alright