I exclusively race my S2000 and use distilled water because coolant is not allowed on tracks. I live in MN but have a heated garage. We had an extreme cold come through a week ago and the engine and radiator froze solid despite the heated garage. No slush. I let it thaw completely before running it. Didn't see any leaks and freeze plugs look okay. Started it up and everything seemed fine and ran okay for 10mins.

Aside from a compression test, anything else I should check for? Am I screwed?

Cheers!

 

is heater working ok in the car

 

I didn't let it get up to operating temp. My temp gauge said about 140f before I shut it off. I'll try getting up to normal temp.

 

keep heater fan on to see if its warming up,if it is not you need to thaw it more

 

It is completely thawed now. The temp in the garage has been 50 degrees for a week before I started it. More so seeing if the block could have developed a crack - even if the freeze plugs are intact.

 

It could generate a crack without popping the plugs. The plugs are actually core plugs which seal the holes from the casting process. They do provide some freeze protection and thus started getting called freeze plugs forever ago, but are not 100% protection from freeze damage and them not popping out is not a 100% indicator that there is no damage. Plain water can freeze pretty quick. But are you sure that it did freeze completely? The radiator likely would freeze up before the entire contents of the block just due to the radiators thermal transfer.

That said, I have known of engines that froze up solid like that and caused no issues so you may be ok.

It has been a cold biatch for us here lately. And looking to see -20 to -30 this coming week so keep the garage heat on!

 

You might just be fine, if you had a crack you will surely find out . I think there was enough head space in the system to cover the small expansion in the water. Check for leaks outside of the block, I don't think the cylinders would be cracked, you are likely safe.

 

If your radiator isn't leaking, you're likely fine. The channels on the rad are much thinner than the block. If that didn't split open from the ice, you're probably fine.

 

Thanks for the feedback all. No leaks what so ever.