Okay, it got down to -28 degrees outside without windchill, my antifreeze frooze, the end.

 

^This

 

Gotcha.

I don't know the exact time it takes a piston to heat up but i can't imagine it would be that long with all the explosions happening in there. It'll slap for a bit and probably does on most cars but I can't imagine it lasts too long unless there's some serious maintenance issues or the engine is loaded with miles.

 

Oh that really sucks. I think 50/50 goes down to -40F. Does yours have some age or are you running less that 50/50?

 

Sounds like you need new coolant or you have too much water in the system. I'd definitely get a flush and new stuff put in. Coolant is good for -34 I think but too much water will dilute it and raise the freezing point.

 

I put two gallons of 50/50 antifreeze in it thinking i should be good,, well i didn't know they held 3.5 gallons. Back in the summer i flushed my coolant system out with water then put two gallons of 50/50 in it then the other 1.5 gallons was pure water. That was left in it when i flushed it. So the whole time i thought it was full of 50/50 but i was wrong.

 

So basically it had nothing to do with the wind chill, as you previously stated, and everything to do with improper care and maintenance of your vehicle.

Did your block crack when it froze?

 

Even tho your correct about the improper care. and when did i say that windchill WILL freeze antifreeze.????? I asked if windchill could freeze antifreeze!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Wind chill does not impact inanimate objects such as car radiators and exposed water pipes, because these objects cannot cool below the actual air temperature.

 

I suppose that's the nature of the internet. I saw your comment as a sarcastic question like 'herpderp the wind chill was -34 which is the freezing point of my coolant which is why it froze' as opposed to a legit question about wind chill freezing coolant. If it was a legit question then I digress.

Did your block end up cracking?

 

K

 

Dunno. However long it takes the slap to go away I guess lol. It will certainly be less time than waiting for the oil to get up to temp.

That's like 90% of the engines on this site lol. These aren't brand new Mazdas that explode if you don't run 0w20, they like Xw40 becase they're so loose.

 

This is not true of synthetic oil whose only real benefit is maintaining its viscosity well below freezing.

For conventional Dino oil it's 100% correct.

 

So to recap.... Regardless if my motor is made of some cast iron, some forged steel, some cast aluminum, and a variety of other metals... they are commonly going to only change .000006 per degree of temp change... some off them are made in a circle so X2 on dia...and now we are going to "stick a torch" on top of the pistons to warm them up quickly, yet our overall block (which houses these pistons) will not warm up nearly as fast. There is nothing on here but opinions, and mine is get some semblance of operating temp before operating.
Mahle recommends a difference of .002 clearance between their aluminum piston and their monotherm piston (something to do with expansion on different metals)
I ramble...
It doesn't get real cold down here in Arkansas, but If anybody gets on a piece of equipment without checking the fluid levels, or starts to operate it without some warm up time on any of our jobsites, we don't consider them operators. That's just normal preventive maintenance, but what do I know. That's kinda like cool down time on a turbo diesel, we do that too.
I know this is all opinions, but I like to think mine are always right LOL

 

Good point,