Well, I don't know if people remember the Volvo 240 wagon I just bought- the one with a leaky radiator and leaky waterpump. It's the one I bought after I determined this was the worst of it, and the engine was still fine. ( I can't find the original thread at the moment)

About a week ago, I attempted to drive the 25 miles from my place in Providence, RI, to where I'm going to work on it. I figured with the leaks, I could still limp home on taking the trip in 5-10 mile spurts where I'd check the coolant and add some to replace whatever leaked out, maybe 2 mile spurts if it was really leaky. All week it had been in the upper 30's, 40's even the 50's degree Fahrenheit, and it was almost March.

Before I left, I checked the coolant.. There was barely anything in there (nothing in the expansion tank, that's for sure). The previous time I had driven it, I had filled it, but now it needed about 3 gallons (maybe a little more) of water to fill it back up. This seemed to indicate that it was leaking out even when the car was sitting. I made the drive home allright, and stopped a few times.. The coolant level wasn't going down much at all, which was strange.

I intended on coming back in a few days to replace the radiator and waterpump. In the back of my mind was the idea that whatever water I had put in there would probably slowly drip out over the next couple of days, and I did not want to put antifreeze in there, because an animal might drink it up and the stuff is so expensive especially if it's just going to leak out.

A few more days passed and I didn't get to it.. Then out of nowhere it went down to like 12 degress F today, and before that it was been pretty consistently above freezing. I started to get worried about the engine, and so I made it over to the car today and took a peek....

Popped open the hood. Crap. There's still coolant (probably 90% water) in the system. It didn't leak out. The two black coolant lines are frozen pretty solid. Sh*t. The expansion tank is still full..Where the hell was this radiator leak when I needed it?. The top of the expansion tank was a little bit slushy, but mostly frozen solid. I'm thinking, I've probably killed the engine.

Still 12 degrees out, I removed the two large coolant lines.. The ice inside is a little bit green, but still pretty solid, though just a teensy bit slushy. When I remove the upper line, a little bit of air escapes.. I start wondering about the freezing process of water and it's ability to break things.. If there's air in the system, will the ice expand in the direction of the air pocket and just compress it? If one were to fill a glass bottle 80% full with water and cap it and then let it freeze overnight, will it break the glass or will it just fill the open area with the ice and compress the air? How strong is a Volvo engine to resist something cracking? Since there really is some kind of leak in the radiator, would it push air out of the leak and then the ice would expand to fill the space? I really didn't want to be asking these questions.

Yes, I know, everyone will tell me I'm a fool for having just water in there and no antifreeze. I know.. But I figured it would all leak out overnight or over a couple of days, and it had been warm lately.. 12 degress is actually very cold for around here at this time of the year.. And I was going to get to the repairs soon, and then have the proper coolant.

I submerged the two coolant hoses in hot water, and got them empty of ice. I also managed to pour hot hot water into the water pump and the tstat housing. until all the ice was out of there. At this point I was figuring the best thing to do would be to try to run the engine and warm it up so that all the remaining ice would melt (I don't care about the radiator at all). Once I got to that point, I decided to risk it crank it over, but on the first try have the coil disconnected. I sounded ok, as ok as an engine with no spark would sound. Then i reconnected the HT line from the coil to the distributor.. Still no spark, and then, I swear that the compression-y sound that you usually get when you crank over an engine- made a different note.. as if something had let go (?). Sh*T Sh*t.. maybe I shouldn't've done that. Or would that noise sound different if the two big coolant lines are off?

At that point I remembered that the heater core and the cooling lines coming from the engine to that are also pretty frozen solid. I had not removed them, but I figured that if the water pump is just pumping air, then there would be no circulation anyway.

So. I think I'm screwed.. I can't do anything until it warms up here (I don't exactly have a heated garage to push the car into). Since the radiator is a loss, I just left the big coolant lines disconnected.. Is there anything I could have done while cranking over the engine that could have made it worse? I figured at this point it was either the same with solid ice in the block as if it was nothing in the block. and as long as the waterpump could turn freely (and anyway, i'm replacing that too), then no harm would come from cranking it over a little. I didn't crank it over too much, but it didn't fire.. Then again, I had poured an awful lot of hot water onto the engine itself (so the distributor was all wet), so maybe that's why it didn't fire. And then, it's really cold out too, which in itself might make an engine not want to start.

If the ice in the block did do damage, what would be the first thing to crack? cylinder head or the engine block-or head gasket? Is the molecular process of freezing just looking to push the air out somewhere? The one thing I don't know is exactly how much water was in the system to begin with - meaning I don't know if the whole system was only at the halfway mark with water, and the freezing process pushed it all up to the top of the expansion tank- or if there was more in there.. I fear more.

I have another engine (still sitting in an 85), but I was hoping it didn't come down to that. And I hope I don't have to replace the whole heater core, which I hear the entire car is built around that thing. Ugh.

Any advice? I can't do much until the air temp is consistently above freezing, then I can try a compression test and then try getting it running again if that looks promising.

-Bricky