Erik T

guys,

hope you can help me out on this one:
over the last months I changed cylinderhead, belts etc.
After that engine was cranking but did not start, problem was in the sensor area. Last week when I was working on the sensor issue and cranking the car to check Voltage the engine suddenly got stuck. First I thought it was the starter engine but now it appears to be the crankshaft is stuck!!

What could be the problem here? Could it be a stuck piston? (lack of oil maybe).

Before I start stripping the engine again... HELP!

Ski

Take a 24mm socket, 4" exstension and preferably a long ratchet or breaker bar and see if you can turn the engine over by hand - DON'T FORCE ANYTHING. It might be a bit stiff if it happens to be on compression for one of the cylinders, but you should still be able to turn it. Turn the engine clockwise; you may want to pull your plugs before you do this, just a thought.

Just saw the change belts in your post. You did make sure everthing was at TDC when you changed the belts? Did you roll the engine over by hand after the belts were done? Just asking here...

Erik T

Ski,

Tried to turn it with a breaker bar, but it realy is stuck. Also removed the sparkplugs to check if it was 'vacuum' stuck, but nope. Also pulled off the intake manifold.

regarding your last question about TDC: yes, cranked the car by hand and it was working (with the starter engine too, until yesterday). Do you know if the pistons can get stuck when cranking the car many times without actualy having it running?

Cheers, Erik

Alan C.

Do you have access to a bore scope? It might help with looking at the cylinder walls. The obvious, you lubed the walls and used a good assembly lube. How long have you cranked it over?
Alan C.

pk951

Erikt

MY guess is you are not at top dead- center, the piston is touching the valves, check youre tdc.

Erik T

Alan,

I think I cranked the engine for 30 times like 10 sec. long. Needed that to check the Voltage of ref. sensors. All the lube might be gone by now.

Thanks,
Erik

Ski

Well...if you can't turn it by hand then it's at lease time to pull the cam tower to see if it will turn then. If it turns after the cam tower is off then I'd turn it until the cam gear is at TDC and then verify the flywheel TDC mark at the bell housing opening.

If this is NOT the case, if these two marks don't align, I would pull the head personally. good luck

Tom M'Guinn

Have you checked to see if the timing belt is still on and tensioned? Maybe a roller lossened up? I have turned my motor many times without starting (by hand anyway) and never had a problem. If you were cranking with the starter, the oil pump should have been pumping a little I'd think. Did you re-torque the front pulley bolt to spec. That is important for the oil pump to work. Even without oil pressure, it's hard to believe you siezed a motor this way. Have you tried removing the starter and cranking by hand? If you overheated the starter cranking the motor, it may have become an expensive flywheel lock.

awilson40

try turning carefully backwards, If your timing slipped and you hit a valve, you should be able to turn it backwards a bit. Perhaps also squirt some oil in the spark plug holes to make sure all is lubed well.

Joe Jackson

Check to see if a bolt fell down into the bellhousing and jammed up the flywheel. It doesn't take a large bolt (guess how I know). I managed to free it by using a breaker bar and rocking the crank back and forth. Wouldn't move much at first but then finally did as the bolt dislodged. With the bolt stuck, the crank seemed "frozen". I also once bought a parts car with a "frozen" engine. A bolt again had fallen into the bellhousing jamming the flywheel. This happened while the owner was cranking the car and resulted in a chunk of the bellhousing being cracked away and a mess of shredded aluminum inside the bellhousing. I had to pull the bellhousing on that car to free up the flywheel.

AlexE

Check the starter that it hasn't locked up on the ring gear.............. You probably cooked it trying to start it.... (let hope its that or a bolt wedged in your flywheel)

pete944

Since you were working around the reference sensors my guess is that you may have dropped something in the hole in the bellhousing and it's jammed in the flywheel teeth. That was the first thing that came to mind. Climb on top of the engine and look in the hole with a flashlight. If there is a bolt or something in there you may be able to fish it out with a magnet. You may have to turn the motor counterclockwise by hand slightly to free up the bolt.

Erik T

Guys,

thanks so far for your help! Today I took off the camshaft (all valves look OK) and starter engine, but not any movement of the cranck.. so tomorrow taking of the head..

When I tried to turn the engine by hand counterclockwise I loosened the big bolt which holds the pulley of the power steering. I noticed some freeplay in the main timingbelt pulley (up and down). Is this normal? And is there any other way to turn counter clockwise with this bolt off? It might loosen things up

Further I am absolutly sure nothing fell into the holes of the bellhousing.

Any ideas are welcome.

Cheers, Erik

Ski

You tried to turn it counterclockwise...and you loosened the main crankshaft bolt? That's like 155-165 lbs or torque!(can't remember exactly)

Tom M'Guinn

With the cam housing off, are all the valves in their fully upright and closed position? They should be of uniform (closed) height.

I'm with Ski on the front bolt. To remove a properly torqued bolt, you need to crank really really hard, with a big breaker bar. Since you don't know why it is stuck, I presume you have not been cranking that hard on the motor -- so as not to bend something expensive. If the front bolt was not torqued to spec, you could have no oil pressure. Although freezing the motor from oil starvation is possible I guess, it just seems so unlikely if you were just using the starter motor to turn the motor.

You've taken it out of gear, right?

Did you check to see if any teeth came off the starter, that may have lodged somewhere?

Are all accessory belts off?

DO you have a spring centered clutch? Have you tried to see if it seems to work still? Those springs can break and make and ugly wedged-up mess.

A strap wrench on the pulley would turn the motor backwards if it weren't frozen up.