North American Turbocoupe Organization

ok, over the summer i flushed the cooling system out on my 88 tc and then used the prestone chemical flush stuff and filled the system up the rest of the way with water. i ran it that way until i pulled the car in the garage and started taking it apart for a turbo swap. its still in the garage, and since its winter, it has been below freezing for quite sometime now.

I DID however drain the cooling system out, removed the radiator and hoses, and had the thermostat housing off to install a godfrey t-stat. When i had the housing off i didn't notice very much water in the hole, very little.

Im wondering if there could still be enough water in the block to possibly crack it. The water in there is straight water and chemical flush, so there is no doubt it's frozen. I looked at the freeze plugs and they don't look disturbed. Im getting nervous about the block being cracked because i have been buying alot of parts for the car for this summer, hopefully i didn't cause any damage. Am i screwed?

Tough one. There's 2 mini freeze plugs in the back of the block too. Time to pull the tranny and the head and get a good look at everything.

You should be fine. If the system is still open the water that is left in it would have room to expand. When the system is full and closed the water has nowhere to expand to except the freeze plugs or block, thats when you have problems.

i guess i wait till spring and see if i get water in the oil or anything.

What Doug said; drained and open with room for expansion equals no cracked block. You shouldn't have a problem.

Trivia: Water is the only substance that expands when frozen, everything else contracts.

heres to hoping

I would still check it carefully. Water doesn't expand equally, and if the only space to go froze first it would be stuck where it is. Ever seen a un-capped beer bottle full of water in the freezer? Some freezes out the top (expansion)but blocks the rest that hasn't frozen and the bottle still cracks. Inboard boats with raw water cooling don't have drain cocks at the bottom of the engine blocks, front and back for no reason, IMHO.

BUT...it's in your garage. Chances are it never got below 31 to really freeze anything.

its not a heated garage..i pulled the coolant return line for the turbo off and it was froze solid

Well, maybe you are screwed. Is the turbo full of ice also, or is just the drain line? Any water that is in the block is frozen then. Just a matter of where it expanded to.

Id get the engine running before I speculated about might have happened. Just keep an eye on the fluids and at the first sign of trouble, shut it down and go from there. With the turbo coolant line frozen, I wouldnt immediately jump the gun thinking everything else is frozen. The coolant line is small, holding a little bit of water in comparison to the rest of the engine. That little bit of water will freeze before a larger amount of water will. Id get it going, and keep an eye on it afterwords. Good luck!