diff --git a/scrapy/crawler.py b/scrapy/crawler.py
index 52d4069ac..692a896be 100644
--- a/scrapy/crawler.py
+++ b/scrapy/crawler.py
@@ -18,13 +18,17 @@ class Crawler(object):
 
     def __init__(self, spidercls, settings):
         self.spidercls = spidercls
-        self.settings = settings
+        self.settings = settings.copy()
+
         self.signals = SignalManager(self)
         self.stats = load_object(self.settings['STATS_CLASS'])(self)
         lf_cls = load_object(self.settings['LOG_FORMATTER'])
         self.logformatter = lf_cls.from_crawler(self)
         self.extensions = ExtensionManager.from_crawler(self)
 
+        self.spidercls.update_settings(self.settings)
+        self.settings.freeze()
+
         self.crawling = False
         self.spider = None
         self.engine = None
@@ -95,11 +99,7 @@ class CrawlerRunner(object):
     def _create_crawler(self, spidercls):
         if isinstance(spidercls, six.string_types):
             spidercls = self.spiders.load(spidercls)
-
-        crawler_settings = self.settings.copy()
-        spidercls.update_settings(crawler_settings)
-        crawler_settings.freeze()
-        return Crawler(spidercls, crawler_settings)
+        return Crawler(spidercls, self.settings)
 
     def _setup_crawler_logging(self, crawler):
         log_observer = log.start_from_crawler(crawler)
diff --git a/tests/test_crawler.py b/tests/test_crawler.py
index 5128ea6e9..34fc1a367 100644
--- a/tests/test_crawler.py
+++ b/tests/test_crawler.py
@@ -25,16 +25,6 @@ class CrawlerTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
             self.crawler.spiders
             self.assertEqual(len(w), 1, "Warn deprecated access only once")
 
-
-class CrawlerRunnerTest(unittest.TestCase):
-
-    def setUp(self):
-        self.crawler_runner = CrawlerRunner(Settings())
-
-    def tearDown(self):
-        return self.crawler_runner.stop()
-
-    @defer.inlineCallbacks
     def test_populate_spidercls_settings(self):
         spider_settings = {'TEST1': 'spider', 'TEST2': 'spider'}
         project_settings = {'TEST1': 'project', 'TEST3': 'project'}
@@ -42,12 +32,13 @@ class CrawlerRunnerTest(unittest.TestCase):
         class CustomSettingsSpider(DefaultSpider):
             custom_settings = spider_settings
 
-        self.crawler_runner.settings.setdict(project_settings,
-                                             priority='project')
+        settings = Settings()
+        settings.setdict(project_settings, priority='project')
+        crawler = Crawler(CustomSettingsSpider, settings)
 
-        d = self.crawler_runner.crawl(CustomSettingsSpider)
-        crawler = list(self.crawler_runner.crawlers)[0]
-        yield d
         self.assertEqual(crawler.settings.get('TEST1'), 'spider')
         self.assertEqual(crawler.settings.get('TEST2'), 'spider')
         self.assertEqual(crawler.settings.get('TEST3'), 'project')
+
+        self.assertFalse(settings.frozen)
+        self.assertTrue(crawler.settings.frozen)