DO I have a problem found ICE in radiator

[Alec]

If we don't overheat down here w/o the purple stuff then you don't have to worry

 

[VairKing]

You dont have orange antifreeze in your X do you? I thought that was a GM thing...Anyways, no the two cannot be mixed, and if you do have the orange (Dex-cool or otherwise) I strongly reccomend you flush it out for some good ole green stuff. The orange stuff tends to turn to brown muck after about 3 years...

 

[jgilbs]

if you found ice in your radiator, a good idea would be to pressure test it to be sure that it is structurally intact. i left water in my cooling system a few weeks ago and it froze and basically destroyed everything in the cooling system (except the block, thank god) - if you saw a little bit of ice, it is safe to assume there is more where you can't see. i tested my radiator after the freeze incident and found it to be leaking at the plastic to metal seam. just hook up a pressure tester (u can rent them at autozone for $70 - refundable when u return the tool) and listen for leaks. if u hear any hissing (like i did) just put some soap and water in a spray bottle and spray it where there is a suspected leak. the leak will form bubbles.

 

[Billy177]

i think you need to flush your system then refill it with a 70%af and a 30%h2o mix this should protect you until -60 degreese

 

[AlaskanJack]

Oh the Orange antifreeze was jsut the environmentaly safe kind, not a GM kind.

 

[V8BoatBuilder]

Originally posted by AlaskanJack
Oh the Orange antifreeze was jsut the environmentaly safe kind, not a GM kind.

There are two kinds of "Orange" anti-freeze.

One is a No-Silicate blend used in Toyotas, Hondas, etc from the factory. It's very silimilar to the green antifreeze.

There is also Oranage non-toxic antifreeze used in drinking water systems to winterize RVs, Boats, etc. This stuff is great to save the planet, and great for potable water systems. But - It protects only to -10 degrees. Manufacturers claim to -50, but that has to be 100% pure, and even at these extremes, the antifreeze forms a gell around 0 degrees.

 

[FIRE and ICE]

I ran my explorer up and down the Seward and Alcan hwys and to Big Lake for years w/o any overheating probs (yes i even used the a/c once )
I ran stock antifreeze and used the block heater when the temp got below 10 deg. - never had a prob., winter or summer.
be careful with "external" heater ideas - Once heard of a person putting a toaster oven under the oil pan to keep it warm -- what a mess when oil leaked down onto it (can you say FIRE )
I have seen people mount a 100 watt light bulb on a square piece of plywood and leave it lit on the front seat in the pass compartment to keep the inside warm.
out in Palmer you might want to invest in a tank type heater that goes in line from heater core to engine, they claim that the heat will circulate to most of the system.
I had one of those in my s-10 and it worked great [DON'T let the coolant (oops my Fla. is showing) antifreeze get low as you dont want the tank to go dry]
BTW wind chill is only for humans, animals and cheechacko's.

 

[AlaskanJack]

There is also Oranage non-toxic antifreeze used in drinking water systems to winterize RVs, Boats, etc. This stuff is great to save the planet, and great for potable water systems. But - It protects only to -10 degrees. Manufacturers claim to -50, but that has to be 100% pure, and even at these extremes, the antifreeze forms a gell around 0 degrees.

Ah so that was what I was seeing I thought I saw gell globules in the water.

Well it seems to be all taken care of now.

 

[Glacier991]

The radiator in Ex's is an odd contraption with a plastic header and a gasket. I'd definitely pressure test it. Meanwhile I second the suggestion of a tank type heater. This goes in the heater hose lines and by convection circulates hot coolant through the block (not sure if it also runs it through the radiator but it may). I've never encountered temps of -50, but saw plenty of
-30's in Northwest Montana, and the lightbulb and blanket idea was often used with sucess). HTH

 

[mhn3773]

^ hondas have the saaaame thing..a friend and i were changing spark plugs and one of us leaned on the rad...the next week we were replacing the rad with an all metal duplicate