racerxrick

PM sent

Glad your getting your car together!

zerMATT951

Rick - I would take those tires to that "Motorsports" shop and make them buy me a new set. Holy **** that was a bad alignment!!


No good news from me today. I finally had a chance to pull the starter and belt cover... everything looks fine, and I still can't turn the motor with a breaker bar. Unfortunately, I'm fairly certain that means that I've most likely got a major internal problem. I guess the next step is to pull the head and see what the cylinder walls look like.

My brother picked up one of those inspection camera/snake things at Harbor Freight hoping that I would be able to see something through the spark plug holes, but the end is too big to fit. I can see in a bit, and all I can tell is that cylinder #1 appears to be down (combustion stoke, based on the cam timing mark I think), #4 is the same, 2 & 3 are up near the top. Nothing looks odd, but I really can't see that much.

dillon410021

make sure the waterpump is spinning and not siezed

zerMATT951

I'll be sure to check that, but the crank won't move either direction with a breaker bar. I'm sure I would be able to at least take up a tiny bit of slack in the timing belt with a breaker bar if it was just a seized water pump. I can feel the slack using the "twist" method, but the crank won't turn even a fraction of a degree.

Own Goal

Really hate to hear that Matt. so, thinking drop the pan or pull the head first? OR, maybe cam tower? (as in dropped a valve??)
Did you guys get bro's car all up and going again?

zerMATT951

Mike's car is still in pieces. We had to stop a few weeks ago because there was a little nick in one of the balance shaft bearings that I didn't like and there weren't any nearby. Then life got in the way, so it's been sitting. We are going to jump on that again this coming Sunday and I hope that we'll wrap it up.

I will definitely pull the head to investigate before pulling the pan. The head is easy enough to pull off, so I'll do that before pulling the motor just in case it's valve-train related, but there were no odd noises when the failure happened, so I'm not expecting to see any bent valves. I expect that the bottom-end has a major issue already so I'll pull the motor out of the car before the pan comes off.

I already posted a feeler thread in the classifieds for a good bottom-end low-mile motor... maybe I can find something that isn't too far away.

racerxrick

aw geez....was hoping for the best, sorry Matt. Keep us posted.

reno808

you sure its not in gear? Sorry for the smart *** comment but i did that once and i freaked for a solid 3 minutes not cool.

zerMATT951

I coasted for 3 blocks and parked it in the garage when it died, and I've rolled it a few feet a couple of times to get around it over the past couple of weeks. It's not in gear .

lart951

Matt, let me know if I can help with anything, it's a bummer.

Own Goal

Matt, you like me too a few years to get yours going again. I do not remember if you were engine out, full crank up rebuild or just rod bearing in the car? Sorry for bad memory, I'm sure we talked about it but can't remember how far down you took it. For it to just lock up on you coming into the neighborhood with no pressure drop, no bad sounds etc. is just strange. I have a bore scope too but not sure small enough to go in the cyl. Let me know if can help.

zerMATT951

I left the motor in the car during my "rebuild", stopping short of dropping the pan because I had documentation from the PO that the car had new rod bearings, LR baffles, and a new pick-up tube installed less than 8,000 miles before I bought the car. The pan gasket looked good with no leaks, so I decided not to mess with the bottom-end at all. So much for that plan...

zerMATT951

I finally got Mike's car back together a few weekends ago (and it runs!), so I cleaned up the garage a bit over the last two weekends and started to dig into my car again today.

Once I pulled all of the belts (starter was already off), I was able to confirm that the crank is the only thing that won't turn. Ugh.

I proceeded to pull the intake, cooling hoses, and a bunch of other stuff in preparation for pulling the motor. I'm assuming it's coming out the bottom, but I've never seen it done, so I'm off to search for a good "how to" thread that'll tell me how much suspension I have to pull off to get the crossmember out.

KuHL 951

Sorry for the bad news. After dropping two engines in one weekend I'm convinced it's easier for (me at least) to drop the engine w/ the cross member attached. I lower it onto my creeper and pull the whole mess out. The hardest part for me was getting the steering shaft disengaged from the rack, after that it was a snap.

zerMATT951

I'm also hoping that my tall 5-ton jack stands will give me enough vertical room to get the motor out. Now I need to find an engine crane and stand...