Today I started my car...let it warm up...and drove about a mile. Turned on the heat and it came out like air conditioning. I noticed the temp guage was up around 220...so i popped the hood and checked the water level...a little low so i added..like less than a litre.... The heat came on and the temp came back down. I just went out to lunch....on the way back I noticed the temp was up around 220 again...checked the water....it's ABOVE the "fill to here hot" line...felt the hoses going to and from the radiator and water pump and all are hot to warm except the one going to the top of the water pump. I have an 86 Berlinetta w/ 305. Any ideas what might cause this? Keep in mind it is 4oF with a windchill of -10oF.

 

well....i figured out the problem today. There is ice in my tank! I'm picking up an antifreeze testor and a bottle of antifreeze today. I'm thinking about draining the whole system and refilling it with warm water....remove any ice in there....then refilling it since I don't know when the last time it was changed was. What do I do with the old antifreeze/water from my tank?

 

I bring my old oil and antifreeze to the garage where I live. There shouldn't be any ice in there, since it's called antifreeze and all. All you really need to do is drain the whole system, remove the overflow tank and rinse it out, drain radiator and the 2 engine drain plugs, and flush with water. Be sure to use the 50/50 antifreeze/distilled water mixture.

Also since you have a V8 I think it hold about 14 quarts of coolant, so that's 2 gallons of Prestone/Zerex/ect antifreeze and 2 gallons of distilled water.

 

i konw there shouldn't be any ice....but there is. I guess when I replaced my water pump...in the summer....i didn't use enough antifreeze. I'm going to do this on wednesday when it's warmer then freezing out...right now its 10oF. Think if i empty the resevoir and rinse it out....fill it with antifreeze it will help till wednesday? Also...where are the engine drain plugs? Once these are removed...will the water flow through the system unrestriced so i can flush the system?

 

That should work for now, as long as it gets sucked back into the system from the overflow tank OK. The engine drain plugs are halfway back along the oil pan rails. That will let all the coolant flow out of the engine as well as the radiator, and when you go to flush it, water will flow out all three drain openings.