The coolant situation was fine until the deep freeze. My theory is that the coolant that was in it was not capable of being liquid at -20C, and when the vehicle was started, the heat couldn't move because the coolant in the rad was frozen. Causing it to exceed the maximum temperature and vaporize. As the hot vapor penetrated the system, the rad slowly melted, causing the now liquid coolant to flow into the engine. But the engine was so hot that the coolant vaporized on contact.

This process continued until all the coolant was vapor and that vapor exceeded the pressure limits of the system and that caused it all to escape the system through the pressure cap on the rad.

I believe that the continual vaporization of the coolant was the only thing that kept the engine from overheating to the point of a complete failure.

I swear, it had coolant in it before the deep freeze.

[–] kindernacht@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that happens. That's why they make block heaters. The moral of the story is don't be a dick about people not knowing everything about their vehicle. I still argue with some of the smartest people I know about filling their tank before severe weather hits. We're not all on the same level, most people just expect it to work.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago

Oh, I'm not trying to be a dick about anything. I'm just saying I don't understand the mindset of being okay knowing next to nothing about the things they own and rely on every day.

That's it.

Sorry if that was not clear.