a nasty leak

[Michael]

Yesterday morning I walk out to the parking lot, and see a sight that breaks my heart: a puddle of antifreeze on the asphalt under my V8 Z. The temperature was maybe 15 degrees, and the cooling system was filled ~50/50 with antifreeze. When I removed the cap from the filler unit, which sits on a section of hose, inside I found crunks of green ice, as if the antifreeze had itself frozen! There were two dripping streams of coolant: one from a clamped hose end (no biggy), and one from somewhere under the block (biggy).

 

It's too cold to check closely, but I suspect that at best, a freeze plug popped, and at worst, the block is cracked.

 

Is is possible that I used too dilute a mixture of antifreeze? I can't imagine that such a simple mistake can have such devastating consequences!

[Guest pauli]

i would think that plugs, hoses, overflow tanks and even the radiator would go before the block...

[Modern Motorsports Ltd]

quote:

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Originally posted by pauli:

i would think that plugs, hoses, overflow tanks and even the radiator would go before the block...

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The pressure zone of the freezing liquid is not the entire length of the it's routing. Their are several 'smaller' passages within the block not adjacent to a freezeplug so block cracking can occur quite easily.

 

FWIW the fluid being pressurized by the expanding ice/frozen zone can easily exert 29,000PSI during this hydrofracturing process

 

FWIW, one fella had his sbc block completely prepped to the nth degree for big $'s and was then assembling it himself.....wanted to be sure the main cap bolts were well lubed and poured some oil into the bolt holes....started bolt torque down...crack he was steaming just a little

 

 

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