theedge

Well, tried to start my car again today after fixing a few things on the MegaSquirt. She cranked fine, almost caught a few times, then after a few more attempts locked up solid.

Pulled plugs, starter, and depressed the clutch pedal... Cant spin it by hand with a long pipe. Timing belt looks fine and seems tight. Its brand new, no missing teeth. Oil pressure pegged the gauge was at max on the stick. Car had coolant in it.

So place your bets... Broken ring? Broken rod? Broken rod bolt? Valve contact?

I was so close

Now.... Where is that engine hoist and my case of beer.

special tool

Dude - what did you do???

theedge

I dont know

Shes been cranking over fine for the last few days as I chased down niggling issues. Oil pressure seemed perfect the whole time. Tried to start today, almost caught a few times then it locked. Had spark, had fuel, all seemed fine. Rod bearings were replaced as was the crank.

I think im cursed

I going to go loosen off the timing belt and see if that gives any clues...

Ski

Did you hear ANY noises of any kind? Just take the t belt off, mark the cam gear and cover for orientation, and see if the cam is free +/- on either side where it is now, at least to see if that's free.

theedge

I think there might have been a thud/bang right before it locked up. What I dont understand is its been cranking over fine all week, and today it lets loose.

Loosened the TBelt, cam can move to either side so I guess its definatly the bottom end...

Pauerman

That's some really horrible news, try to keep your cool man. Maybe the timing belt skipped enough teeth for the valves to make contact?? Good luck diagnosing the problem.

MPD47

Do you smell fuel? Fuel pump still on? Not the most likely situation, but I've seen it happen before when there was an issue with an injector and EMS.

theedge

No problems with the fuel pump or fuel system. Had 40 PSI of pressure. Plugs are blackened so it was working there. Ive loosened timing and balance belts, those all spin freely as does the waterpump, alternator belt was off already, plugs are out, starter is out, cant see anything jamming the flywheel... Even with all that stuff, I cant spin the crank by hand even with a breaker bar. Something is fubar I think...

Draining the oil now to see if I can see any metal.

MPD47

Damn, didnt know you had it torn down. Definitely doesnt sound good.

theedge

Well cam tower is off. All the valves are there and seem to be lined up, so no bent valves... Still cant spin the engine in either direction so I guess the engine is coming out tomorrow...

Gator_86_951

Sorry to hear that brian. I know you have been working on this car for a long time. Hopefully it is something minor. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Ski

before you pull the engine, I have one suggestion: loosen the bolts on the bell housing enough to back the housing off by 1/4 - 3/8 of an inch, then try to turn the engine over to see if it's free - if something went wrong in there and anything is hitting the bell housing, it won't turn either.

We had to loosen the bell housing when putting in a new clutch on Rhobs car, 930 disc with Cup PP. got it stabbed and the damn engine wouldn't move. We backed it off about 1/4", engine and flywheel were free, got all the PP bolts in, snugged it up, all good, then tightened the bell housing back up - that was 2500 miles ago.

theedge

Thanks for the suggestion, ill give that a try. If worse comes to worse, Chris White might be getting some money from me this winter

Chris White

I hate to earn it this way!

The engine won't budge in either direction?

Campeck

I started shivering when i read that.

Find what went wrong yet?

edit- i saw "yesterday" as the last post and thought..oo. maybe he found out already..but..since its 12:19...11:00 oclock would have been yesterday. my bad.