First, I just want to say I am not well educated on the subject...

With that said, my car had a run in with a stump that basically put a nice big hole in the bottom of the radiator among other things. I drove the car about 200ft to my friends driveway with huge coolant and boost leaks and parked it there for 2 days. After sitting for 2 days, the tow company started the car and drove it up the driveway so that it could be put on the flatbed. I have no clue how much coolant was left, but there was zero damage done from running the car for ~2 min with little or no coolant. There should be no issue of the car overheating if it is starting with a cold engine, the only thing I would worry about is running the pump dry. So You should be good if you fill it up with distilled water/coolant mix and get it on the trailer.

 

Onto a trailer, I feel you should be fine.

Damage from running it previously with a coolant leak...who knows.

 

+1 on previous advice, without coolant I wouldn't even dare to run a motor for even a minute, without that water you can have a lot of excess heat build in areas of the head and cylinder that can cause cracks and warps, not to mention a blown head gasket. I've worked on enough air cooled hardware in my time while feeling for heat buildup to know it doesn't take long to reach operating temps when you don't have a gallon or more of water acting as a heat sink to slow down the process.

 

From cold it can run probably 5 minutes. If you get a laser thermometer, you can watch it heat up. One the block hits around 120 degrees Fahrenheit I'd shut it down. The car runs just under 200 when heated up. But to move it onto a trailer, you have all the time you need. I agree with stealthy, the lack of water will heat it internally faster than you'd expect. But for a minute to win it onto the trailer, don't worry.

 

Rent some chainfalls or a come along if it's a serious concern.

 

Just fill the thing with coolant and run it as you get it onto the trailer. $12 in coolant and no more guessing.

 

I wouldn't even entertain the idea with no (or unknown) coolant. Even if you constantly measured the head or block, those are massive when compared to the thin cylinder walls. They will take much longer to heat up and by the time they are 120F, your cylinder walls would be far beyond that.

Hounddogger is on the right track but instead of wasting money on coolant and getting coolant all over the place, just buy gallons of distilled water and keep the reservoir topped up while running it.

My opinion, way too much of a risk to attempt even if someone on a forum were to tell me "oh ya, you'll be fine I've done it". I still don't think I would attempt it.

 

I wouldn't even entertain the idea with no (or unknown) coolant. Even if you constantly measured the head or block, those are massive when compared to the thin cylinder walls. They will take much longer to heat up and by the time they are 120F, your cylinder walls would be far beyond that.

Hounddogger is on the right track but instead of wasting money on coolant and getting coolant all over the place, just buy gallons of distilled water and keep the reservoir topped up while running it.

My opinion, way too much of a risk to attempt even if someone on a forum were to tell me "oh ya, you'll be fine I've done it". I still don't think I would attempt it.

Gallons of distilled water are .88 each at Walmart. You will need some to mix with the new coolant when you fix it anyways.

Go buy like five and fill it up with all it will take then pull it on the trailer.

 

Just put some straight water in it and drive on to the trailer.

 

If you use tap water, make sure you do a very thorough flush after it is repaired and before you add new coolant. Distilled water is preferred since the minerals are stripped form the water. If you leave tap water in the system it will cause build up over time.

 

Unless the leak is catastrophic, the system should still hold coolant. If you top it off with water, use distilled water as tap water has ions in it that lead to corrosion. If you start the car up, ensure that it's not streaming coolant out the engine... a slight leak is fine, but you wouldn't want to run it long if it were shooting water. A couple minutes to get it on the trailer like this would not kill it. You have to remember that it takes a few to several minutes on average to even open a thermostat on an engine at which point coolant travels to the radiator to transfer heat to the ambient. That doesn't mean the coolant isn't removing heat locally from critical areas such as the combustion area and moving it to cooler areas such as the block, but for you to do damage for running it for a couple minutes with low coolant is highly unlikely. Just don't get greedy and run it much longer.

 

I drive cars into the shop I work at all the time that have been towed in due to massive coolant leaks or overheated. A minute or two isn't going to any damage under little to no load on a cold engine. If the engine runs smooth after an overheat, it's usually a sign that the head gasket is still intact and the head didn't warp or pop head bolts.

 

If someone has a blown lower hose gallons of anything won't do them any good. The water can literally pour out of the bottom of the system faster than you can pour it in the top.

I've seen lots of motors with cracked heads and blown head gaskets, just because someone claimed they just barely drove it for a minute or so after they lost a lower hose. If you can be towed do you really want to take your chances on trying to run the car? Two situations should always involve a shut down of your motor as soon they are detected, loss of coolant or loss of oil pressure.

Why play russian roulette with your motor when you don't have to?

 

Point is to be realistic... if you have a small leak, that's one thing. If it's pumping coolant out as if a hose is completely disconnected, that's another. If you fire it up and it pumps out a quart of coolant in seconds then you should not be running it period. If it's more like a fine stream that would take a minute or so to fill up a pop bottle then that's not going to be a big deal if you need to run the car for a couple minutes. I make no claim that the engine isn't already damaged not knowing the state of it.

 

While I admit that a cooling system should be pure and pristine, distilled water isn't always available in a time of crisis.

I've been stuck in places when I was a youngster and the only thing I had for coolant purposes was some rotted beer in a drained cooler. It worked enough to get me to a place that had better facilities than I had in the middle of no where.

But to answer your question, put some water in it. Top it off and drive it up onto your trailer.

Ignore these prats about blowing out coolant in seconds. I'm pretty sure if you saw that you'd shut it off instantly anyway.

Secondly, unless Volvo stupidly put your turbo at the bottom of the engine, they're talking theory anyway.

Right, guys?

 

Actually a blown lower hose (radiator, heater or turbo) can drain the water from the upper half of your cylinders and head.

If you think that your engine can be run for an extended time with no water in that area its your gamble to engage in. Not sure why you find where the turbo is located changes any of this.

I'm not saying that I've not limped along with a small leak that I've kept topped off so I can drive the car a short distance to its destination, but Ive done so with the knowledge of the problem and the OP has stated he doesn't have a clear idea of exactly what kind of leak and how much fluid is left in the engine, so I rather give them safe advice that is guaranteed not to **** something up instead of just saying 'go for it' and having them deal with a lot more issues than just replacing a hose.

 

Actually a blown lower hose (radiator, heater or turbo) can drain the water from the upper half of your cylinders and head.

If you think that your engine can be run for an extended time with no water in that area its your gamble to engage in. Not sure why you find where the turbo is located changes any of this.

I'm not saying that I've not limped along with a small leak that I've kept topped off so I can drive the car a short distance to its destination, but Ive done so with the knowledge of the problem and the OP has stated he doesn't have a clear idea of exactly what kind of leak and how much fluid is left in the engine, so I rather give them safe advice that is guaranteed not to **** something up instead of just saying 'go for it' and having them deal with a lot more issues than just replacing a hose.

Great and wise advice.

I had assumed that OP knew something about the leak other than "unknown" amount in radiator due to having the friend tell him about the leak. It is either a slow leak or a fast leak and friend would have told him this.

If it was a slow leak, topping it off and driving it onto the trailer is a no brainer.

If it was a fast leak/gusher, then yes doing this is probably ill advised.

 

Hook up a hose and fill er up with some water so at least it wont run dry. Could you just risk it, yes but why when you can just fill it up with some water. Flush it with distilled and antifreeze after of course

 

Ya, I guess I just assumed small leak. If it leaks faster than you can add, I would not risk that.

 

Guys - I thought the same thing and take a look at my thread here.

I saw the light come on going up a hill and figured I could get to the top and then coast it down the backside of the hill to my house instead of pulling over and calling a truck. I even killed the engine on the back side of the hill, coasted with electric fan running 100%. Cost me an engine and a boat load of havoc with my marriage.

Do not push these engines with zero coolant.

 

The difference is that your car was already hot. Yes, on a hot engine, shut it off and don't drive it. I actually lost coolant from my upper rad hose once, and I drove it 4 blocks to a Walgreens to buy water, and it was just fine. But I was very worried the whole time. I wouldn't have driven it at all except I was downtown and there was literally no parking available, I pulled over at a bus stop to find out what the problem was.

If you're starting from a cold engine, you can idle it and drive it slowly for several minutes before you do any engine damage. I also know this because my V70 was delivered with no coolant, and the truckers didn't bother to check before they revved it and thrashed on it trying to get it unstuck from their truck. They finally towed it off, but left it running the whole time. By the time I got to it to check for coolant, it had been over 10 minutes. I was very worried, but that was almost 90k miles ago, with no problems.

 

Yes you can ...