Shall i drop water out or leave it till the weekend?

[fix]

My bus overheated the other day and its turned out to be a water pipe thats got holes in it. To get myself home i used some quicksteel putty and just filled it back up with water as i didnt have any coolant available.

I filled it up with about 15 lires of water so theres a small amount if any coolant in the system.

Im gonna flush and refill with G12+ at the weekend,but im abit worried that theres naff all coolant in there at the moment and its getting pretty cold in the night.

Am i better leaving the water in there and risk it freezing up with the cold nights,or should i drop the water out tonight and leave nothing in there until the weekend?


Cheers!

[Rozzo]

if it's going to stand til weekend i think i'd drop it. theres usually not enough cold in england to freeze an engine overnight thats run everyday but if it should drop below zero for a few days like last week you could be in trouble.

[lloyd]

Don't know where you are located, but like Rozzo says if it freezes you could have problems. You will need to drain entire system; engine, radiator, etc. If not they could still freeze and break. Wiki doesn't have anything about draining system so could someone tell us where all the drains are in the system?

[fix]

Cheers for the replies,looks like im gonna have to get on my back and under the bus tonight then!

Im gonna look in the haynes for the correct draining points. I lsearched on here and found theres a draining point between the push rod tubes,but im not even sure what push rod tubes are

Or i could just refill with standard antifreeze tonight from a local spares shop,im abit worried about mixing antifreeze but i know the stuff in the van was blue and most antifreezes like comma etc seems to be blue aswell.

I take it if the water freezes it could crack the castings?

[lloyd]

Yes, can crack castings, radiators, pipes etc... depending on how hard it freezes.

[fix]

Yes, can crack castings, radiators, pipes etc... depending on how hard it freezes.

Not good then!

I might be best putting some blue coolant in tonight and flush it through on the weekend,rather than being under the van in the dark tonight trying to drop the coolant out.

[Pepperami]

There are loads and loads of draining places, everywhere there is a jubilee clip basically. Go for the lowest point and let gravity do the rest.

[mrted]

The engine is the most expensive item so check that its drained, the tubes will stand it, the radiator is also prone.


John

[fix]

Ive emptied a few pipes low down but theres still water from the thermostat to the water pump so i dont think the engines drained,ill try find some more places.

Can someone tell me where the drain plugs are please?

[Mr Bean]

I had this quandry in my boat (1600Xfow) and bit the bullet by refilling to the correct degree of protection. I borrowed a battery hydrometer so as to ensure the correct level of protection. I will buy one however as I had 50% antifreeze and this seriously reduces cooling capability of the coolant. ie. too much is not good either. Freezing water in your engine however little can cause problems from ejected seals to cracked castings etc. Maybe I am a bit too carefull though!
Cheers
Wolfie
Must get it circulated though!

[Rozzo]

dont worry too much if you've dropped some from low down. the reason ice cracks engines is that ice has more volume than the water which its made of, in a sealed system theres no room for it to expand so it breaks its container, ie the engine.
leave your drain points open then as it starts to freeze it will push into the spaces you've created.
do drain the radiator tho if you havent already as they're very weak at the best of times

[fix]

Thanks ive emptied what i can do,most of the water must be out now (i hope!)

I think the radiator is empty,alot of water came out when took the bleed screw out.

I ran the engine for abit with some of the pipes disconnected,which pushed quite abit of water out (i guess i was ok to do that)

Hopefully the weather wont be too bad till the weekend,on saturday ill be refilling with g12+