Antifreez test

Good work Pete. I've never understood what's so hard about just draining everything.

A fool and his money.

8122pbrainard wrote: Per Ken's suggestion ("goating") , I ran a test on -50 RV antifreeze overnight. We only got down to a -28 but it was still cold enough to get a good test. Here's the test set up: The results were very obvious. The full strength was slushy and showed no signs of any expansion. The 25/75 was fairly hard and did expand. The 50/50 was the worst and it was rock hard .and did expand. If ether the 25/75 or the 50/50 were confined, I'd have to say the expansion would do some damage in a hard vessel. My recommendation for winterizing a block remains the same. Always drain first and then add the antifreeze. As an additional step draining some of the antifreeze out of the low points to see if there's any water is still in the block is a good practice. If you have a refractometer, take a test to see what the freeze protection is. The bottom line is water mixed into the RV antifreeze is bad. Those of you that suck especially without draining are taking a BIG chance. The recommended procedure in the manual is to remove a hose and pour the anti in. Pretty simple!!! Every spring we seem to have someone post a problem with something on his engine or even the block that froze.

Pete

I think you meant to say "goading" not "goating"

Here's a definition of goading
"provoke or annoy (someone) so as to stimulate some action or reaction".

I not sure what you do with the goats on a cold winter night up there, but that's between you and the them

I am pretty annoying   

But anyways....... on to the antifreeze discussion

We had a mild 2 below zero night last night and I took a glass bottle filled with a 50/50 mix of the minus 50 F stuff capped it and set it outside during the afternoon and let it sit till this morning.

I figured maybe the bottle would break but this morning the bottle was intact and the cap had deformed enough that the seal wasn't great and there was frozen pink stuff around the cap area on the outside. Kinda like a freeze,casting,core or whatever else you might refer to it as plug that was pushed out but the cap threads kept it from coming all the way off.

I figure that burst protection at this temperature was marginal at best so all those southern boys that don't drain and just suck up 5 gallons might be protected down to a little below zero for burst protection...........maybe

Also did the same with a bottle with a 75% antifreeze/25% water mix and like expected, it froze and had no effect on the bottle or the cap seal area. This would be kinda like getting most of the water out and pouring in some of the minus 50 stuff

Like has been said on here for a long time and Pete said again, if you drain first, it's really hard to screw things up no matter what you do after that.

Can't imagine the residual water in a block is any more than 8 oz, which is only about 3% if you add 2 gal on top of it.

Riley wrote: Can't imagine the residual water in a block is any more than 8 oz, which is only about 3% if you add 2 gal on top of it.

But Bruce, the 2 gal. isn't completely mixing with the 8oz..

So if you just drained & left the plugs out, spent the saved $5 on good beer, should the beer be chilled to 35F or 45F?

Gary S wrote: Those guys on PN have alot of money though Larry

Clearly. Plus I have other priorities. For example, It costs a lot for water, soap and electricity to wash my clothes. So everyday, after I wear them, I throw them out and buy new.

Showed my sweetie the garage pictures . Have a feeling that it's " NOT going to happen ".
I tried . LOL

8122pbrainard wrote: Riley wrote: Can't imagine the residual water in a block is any more than 8 oz, which is only about 3% if you add 2 gal on top of it. But Bruce, the 2 gal. isn't completely mixing with the 8oz..

and that would explain a popping freeze plug in a SBF many years ago before we started purging the water out. We winterized 2 boats this winter by draining and then pouring 1/2-3/4 gallon into them and letting that drain out and leaving them empty. The rest got filled with -100. after draining. I won't disclose how many gallons of -100 we bought last fall, but we would like to cut down on our consumption. We're not losing any sleep though, even if it goes down to -50. I got to think if you did your test with -100, none of the samples would have a problem.

Very interesting research Pete.

Oh geez, don’t encourage him Pete.

KENO wrote: Pete I think you meant to say "goading" not "goating" Here's a definition of goading "provoke or annoy (someone) so as to stimulate some action or reaction". I not sure what you do with the goats on a cold winter night up there, but that's between you and the them I am pretty annoying    But anyways....... on to the antifreeze discussion

Damn KENO! You just made Diet Coke shoot out my nose. Note to self: NO DRINKING while reading KENO's posts on CCF.

JQ

So what is the reason for filling with antifreeze rather than draining and leaving empty.
Trying to protect against rust?   Heck they rust all Summer when filled with water from the lakes.
Nice work Pete, might end up in a College somewhere.

Hi peter. At what temps do you recommend winterizing. Unfortunately I’m in California near coast gets into low 30’s , if it rarely got into 20’s I would put heat lamp or heater in boat for the week. Your thoughts?? Thanks

67 ski nat wrote: Hi peter. At what temps do you recommend winterizing. Unfortunately I’m in California near coast gets into low 30’s , if it rarely got into 20’s I would put heat lamp or heater in boat for the week. Your thoughts?? Thanks

Daryn,
It sounds like you have a technique that works. I have no fears of you having any issues or worries. Even when the temps get into the 20's, it takes several days for the engine to see the temps. The trans cooler would be the first to be susceptible. The light bulb trick you use is taking care of you.