frozen water in coolant system

[chrispl]

I went to pickup a 90' 4.0l cherokee today and the previous owner didnt tell me he had put water in the coolant system until after i had paid and driven away,and he also didn't tell me he took out the thermostat. Well the water froze and on my way home,the temperature got high and under the hood started to steam so i pulled into a 7-11 gas station and called a towtruck. The jeep still runs and drives fine. My question is should i just let the jeep sit in the garage and let the water melt then drain everything? Aswell,how do i tell if the block is cracked?

[.:.Dingman.:.]

the way how i was told if your block is cracked is milky colored oil i would drain it all and replace the thermostat and coolant

[Evil-Jeep]

More than likely your block will not be cracked from simple coolant freezing, Dingman is correct if it was cracked the oil will be a grayish colour, hmmm, it may be brownish  if it was pure water in the system.... either way it will be easy to tell. A couple of things to watch for though, cracked fins on your rad, a colapsed hose, and make sure that the frost plug is still seated. I would recomend bringing it indoors and letting it thaw out, top it off with regular water and let the jeep run until it warms up now check that the oil is still just oil, and check the rad hose, remember to check the return hose as well they should be firm and hard to squeeze if the system is flowing water properly, finally check for leaks. If it all checks out refill it with coolant.

Good Luck!

[chrispl]

Alright,thanks alot guys,it's in the garage right now but still have to pull it out to move my golf,i'll turn the furnace on and let the jeep sit until tomorrow and hopefully it thaws out by then. I'll  be sure to check the oil and hoses,and if it's good,give it some fresh correct fluids. Whats everyone running for oil right now thickness wise? Or something thats in the middle,not too thick not too thin so when summer comes i dont change it again.

[cLAY]

Oil is cheap.  I change it every spring/fall.   5/30 winter, 10/30 summer.  Synthetic in winter if its not going to be plugged in.

[cLAY]

Also the block can hold a lot of water, so if its got straight water in in you may need to put a jug of straight A/F in before dumping in the 50/50 mix.

[chrispl]

Yeah true,oil is cheap.
Should i go for synthetic or that high mileage stuff?
I let the jeep sit in the garage with heat on while i cleaned the interior up a bit,
and now for some reason the interior lights wont turn off,i'll have to fix that.

[chrispl]

Alright so i changed the oil(was not milky/grey),oil filter,changed the thermostat,waited for the water to melt out and now i've got another issue,i poured in some coolant and it started to leak,first time from the bottom hose where it clamps too the water pump and now i'm pretty sure from the thermostat housing,i'm thinking the housing might be cracked or something,i plan on finding out tomorrow,but for today i'm done,covered in antifreeze and oil,thats half the fun of owning a jeep 

[.:.Dingman.:.]

Alright so i changed the oil(was not milky/grey),oil filter,changed the thermostat,waited for the water to melt out and now i've got another issue,i poured in some coolant and it started to leak,first time from the bottom hose where it clamps too the water pump and now i'm pretty sure from the thermostat housing,i'm thinking the housing might be cracked or something,i plan on finding out tomorrow,but for today i'm done,covered in antifreeze and oil,thats half the fun of owning a jeep 

clean off the inside of the hose (dry it out) clean off the fitting on the rad (dry it off) that should help stop the leak if not new hose clamps and file the rad fitting a little bit ( rough it up) did you put a new gasket on the t stat?  cleaning stuff will almost stop all leaks in my eyes

[HMFI]

Probably water pump weep hole is leaking. That's why the guy was dumping water into it. I think it needs a new water pump, not expensive but a bit of a pain to change. Then I could be wrong too.

[JENSSEN]

Probably water pump weep hole is leaking. That's why the guy was dumping water into it. I think it needs a new water pump, not expensive but a bit of a pain to change. Then I could be wrong too.

X2 but pretty easy to change