Hard to turn crank after installing head.

[92AWDTalonTSI]

The title says it all. Installed a new head. Now the car cranks really slow. The head was out for about a week. While it was off I did turn the crank to clean the soot from the tops of the pistons. All only while the head was off. I dripped about 4-5 drops of oil in the cylinders to keep the rings lubed up a bit. Only once was the crank turned in the wrong direction (Past TDC a bit while cranking.).

Now that everything is installed it struggles very hard to turn over. As if something is binding up. Upon installing the timing belt the crank was TDC, oil pump was spun till it rested timed and the head was in time from the get go. Once the belt went on all marks were still in proper location. Proper oil and coolant levels etc etc. It's almost like it's bound up.

 

[motozachl]

Weak battery? How hard is it to crank by hand? As in using a socket wrench on the harmonic balancer

 

[talonDSMerr]

If you're cranking it by hand, and the head has the spark plugs installed, then yes, it will be harder to crank because there is now compression. Take out the spark plugs and it should be easy to turn again since you aren't fighting against the compression.

 

[92AWDTalonTSI]

I'm not fighting compression. The car turned over fine. We replaced the head because one of the valve guide seals were leaking oil into the combustion chamber. And now it won't turn over. Its been a week at most since the last time we tried. And last night after a long time wrenching on the car to get it into a startable state. Hit the key, sounds like the starter is struggling and it moves very slowly. IDK what it would be. We are going to replace the cams in the head we got with nicer condition ones. Hopefully it works.

 

[talonDSMerr]

Try turning it over by hand and see if anything is actually binding. If it spins easy, and it cranks slowly when you turn the key, it sounds like its either a starter going out or a weak battery, like mentioned above.

 

[92AWDTalonTSI]

Car is on a charger ATM. It's hard to turn by hand. Wasn't just hours ago though. I'm sure I got timing correct. All marks lined up. It's got to be those cams. I wanted to change them out from the get go. But decided not to. It's got fresh oil. There shouldn't be anything binding up...

 

[talonDSMerr]

Could you describe how it's "hard" to turn over by hand? Does it get progressively hard to turn, and then easy again?

 

[92AWDTalonTSI]

No consistently hard to turn. It is bound up somewhere.

 

[talonDSMerr]

Sounds like it.. Well since it turned over fine before, you know it has something to do with the head. Consistently tough to turn makes me think of cam journals/cam caps somehow binding. Timing belt or cam gears aren't rubbing on anything are they? Any strange noises when you try turning it over?

What was done to the new head?

 

[motozachl]

Make sure your cam caps are in the correct order

When/if you take the tbelt off try and turn each cam/gear by hand and report back the difficulty.

 

[92AWDTalonTSI]

I'm going to TDC the motor. Zip tie the belt to the cam gears and pop the gears off. Then remove the cams. I'll check the cam journals when I remove them. Hopefully all is well. I just don't want to take the head off again.

 

[motozachl]

^ NO. Just take the timing belt off and check the cams

 

[92AWDTalonTSI]

OK with the timing belt off the came are easy to turn. Crank is still stiff. I'm at a loss as to what happened.

 

[tenn-gsx]

Did you bleed your lifters? If not then you likely bent a valve or 2 when you tried to start the car.

 

[92AWDTalonTSI]

We put newer primed lifters and rollers in. I'm sure no vales are bent.

 

[motozachl]

OK with the timing belt off the came are easy to turn. Crank is still stiff. I'm at a loss as to what happened.

Stiff the whole crank around or at just one spot?

 

[tenn-gsx]

We put newer primed lifters and rollers in. I'm sure no vales are bent.

Ok so you primed the lifters. Im going to ask again did you bleed the oil out of the lifters before you installed them?
If not then there is a very high Probablity that you now have a bent valve or all.

Hydraulic lifters self adjust.
When you prime them out of the engine they adjust to max height.
If you dont bleed them before install then they can easily hold the valves open longer than they should when you first attempt to start the car. EVEN ON NEW PRIMED LIFTERS
When these valves are held open too long they contact pistons in many cases.


I hope your right and the valves arent bent.

 

[westcoast]

Make sure your cam caps are in the correct order

When/if you take the tbelt off try and turn each cam/gear by hand and report back the difficulty.

This is where I would start as well. If those Cam Caps aren't in the proper order or over torqued you will experience exactly what you've described.

Good luck.

 

[92AWDTalonTSI]

We used newer lifters that were in another head. The ones from the head previously on the engine. It was leaking oil into the cylinders from the valve guide seals. You could literally see the oil dripping from the center 2 exhaust side valves.

 

[92AWDTalonTSI]

Everything is OK. The water pump was bound up. Turns over fine now. Just no spark.....

Moving on to the appropriate forum sub category.