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On Jan 8, 2006, at 9:35 PM, David Leonard wrote:
I flew to Mammoth this weekend for some snow boarding. Has a great time, and was 210 kts GS on the way up.
Parked the plane for two nights and came back out this afternoon for the flight home. But there was a small puddle of coolant under the engine... and it was still dripping.
Then I remembered. I recently sprung a leak in a cooling line - while away from home. After fixing the leak I used tap water to refill what coolant had been lost - about a gallon. I had forgotten all about that on this latest trip... to the mountains. I figure the antifreeze level was now down to about 25/75 and the overnight temps in the low 20's did the job.
I had to concentrate on getting back home for work tomorrow so I couldn't do much. I couldn't even take off the lower cowl.
I suspect the radiator is cracked somewhere. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? Can this do damage to the engine block? The radiator is custom and will not be cheap to replace, and it will take a while, and the plane is an 8 hour drive away... :-(
Dave, take a deep breath and relax, I really doubt you hurt your engine with that concentration & those temperatures. The block will retain quite a bit of heat too, so the inside of your engine may never have even seen temperatures that low. I've had straight water down to 20 before, and only the radiator froze.
Hans
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