While I was out of town for a couple of weeks we had an unusual cold snap here in New Mexico. The problem is that the Spec. Miata was sitting in the race trailer rather than the heated shop. There's no antifreeze in the Spec. Miata and it was frozen solid.
It's in the shop now thawing out and there's a puddle forming under it so something bad happened. I haven't gotten it up in the air yet to see where it's coming from but it appears to be dripping from the belhousing area. If that's so then the best case scenario is that it pushed out the core plug above the crank.which will just cost me some time. If it damaged the block then I'm going to be out time and money. Either way with my current schedule I'm likely to miss the Jan 7th race that's coming up next.
I hate it when I'm stupid. I hate it even more when I don't get away with it.
That's what freeze plugs are for. You may be lucky.
NOHOME
UltimaDork
1/4/19 3:27 p.m.
In reply to Brett_Murphy :
I think the real reason the holes exist is for casting purposes. But luck is certainly still in play.
NOHOME said:
In reply to Brett_Murphy :
I think the real reason the holes exist is for casting purposes. But luck is certainly still in play.
Correct. Those holes are there so that the water jackets can be made in the casting process and the plugs are technically called core plugs. It's just a very happy coincidence that the plugs will sometimes push out and save the block when the coolant freezes.
In my case it looks like I got really lucky and the leak is from a crack in the housing on the back of the head that one of heater hoses and the temperature sensor attach to. I won't know if there's any other damage till I fix this leak but it's looking like I dodged a bullet this time.
Miatas are tough little buggers!
Hope that is all and that you make your race
You’re not the first to let their race car motor freeze. I lost one, volvoclearinghouse cracked one... it’s easy to forget and experience seems to be the most effective teacher for some of us.
Thanks for the support guys. When I lived in Upstate NY and raced dirt track cars it was easy to avoid frozen motors. When the season ended the motor came out of the car for a refresh. Here in Albuquerque we run Spec. Miatas all year long. Which is great but it does require paying attention to where your race car is parked when it's cold out. One of the big reasons that I race a Miata as opposed to other cars like my Camaro is that it can usually be ignored between races. That's my excuse for not even thinking about it freezing.
I lucked out this time. I welded up the crack Sunday afternoon and put the car back together at lunch time today and the cooling system holds pressure! I can now go back to ignoring the Miata till the next race.
We did that last year with our 2.3 Ford Lima engine, 10-20 degrees for days when we realized what we forgot.
The radiator was frozen solid, after thawing the water pump and lower hose for a while we alternated running it for a few minutes then letting it rest. End result was no damage at all not even the radiator.
I did let it happen one more time and smoked a belt when the frozen water pump would not turn. It has coolant in now.
dculberson said:
You’re not the first to let their race car motor freeze. I lost one, volvoclearinghouse cracked one... it’s easy to forget and experience seems to be the most effective teacher for some of us.
I have come very close, even down here in the south. More then once I have run outside at 11 pm to pull the plug out of the radiator.
Did one myself here in the south.
