I think my engine seized??

[ktyr5151]

So i bought this car from a kid and it needed a headgasket. It was just rebuilt
3k miles ago (or atleast he said it was) so anyways it has 130xxx or something like that on the odometer, I brought it to my local mechanic and he ripped it apart and told me my head was junk (warped) so i got a new one and had it resurfaced, the mechanic put the new hg on with the new head and timingbelt. He did all the timing and cranked it half dozen times to make sure timing was right. And he tried to fire it up and cranked it over a couple dozen times and then he got out and double checked his timing and made sure there was spark and fuel which there was. After he made sure everything was good he got back in and tried to fire it up again and he said it cranked 5 or 6 times and then just locked up. We tried turning the crankshaft with a breaker bar and no budge. He said when he was doing timing there was no grinds or anything that seemed wrong with it. Now i have no clue what might be wrong? He told me my bottom end is junk but i dont wanna believe that quite yet so i figured i should ask you guys what might be the problem? Ive heard the starter can jam up the crank? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[rlacasse1]

The starter can not jam up the crank and prevent it from spinning.

I would say if it won't turn over by a breaker bar then it's probably locked up.

Can you pull the pan to see what your rods are looking like?

 

[jimbob_843]

Sounds like your mechanic didn't prime the oil pump before he fired it over. If that's the case I would make him pay for it.

 

[eDeclpse92]

im with jimbob. you need to prime it before intial start up. it takes like 5 mins. also he needed to prime the lash adjusters too if he didnt do that.

 

[RvlutionMtrsprt]

This has NOTHING to do with priming the motor. It's not a fresh motor, you were just doing a head swap. You DO NOT need to prime a motor after a head swap unless you take an obscene amount of time to complete the job. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that he (your mechanic) didn't bleed your lifters and one of the rocker arms was thrown off and now it's wedged between a cam lobe and the head.
My next guess would be that he totally botched the timing and the valves are now contacting the pistons. Either way, I feel like this is the fault of your mechanic.

 

[turbo98eclipse]

This has NOTHING to do with priming the motor. It's not a fresh motor, you were just doing a head swap. You DO NOT need to prime a motor after a head swap unless you take an obscene amount of time to complete the job. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that he (your mechanic) didn't bleed your lifters and one of the rocker arms was thrown off and now it's wedged between a cam lobe and the head.
My next guess would be that he totally botched the timing and the valves are now contacting the pistons. Either way, I feel like this is the fault of your mechanic.

I sec.d everything in this

 

[donniekak]

I sec.d everything in this

Third.

 

[rlacasse1]

This has NOTHING to do with priming the motor. It's not a fresh motor, you were just doing a head swap. You DO NOT need to prime a motor after a head swap unless you take an obscene amount of time to complete the job. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that he (your mechanic) didn't bleed your lifters and one of the rocker arms was thrown off and now it's wedged between a cam lobe and the head.
My next guess would be that he totally botched the timing and the valves are now contacting the pistons. Either way, I feel like this is the fault of your mechanic.

The only problem I see with this is that the OP got the car in a broken condition. So there may be more to the issue than just this.

Either way it should be able to move a little clockwise or counterclockwise even if there is jumped rocker arm. Although, I would be very careful about turning that puppy counter clockwise.

Your mechanic didn't turn it counter clockwise ever did he?

 

[ktyr5151]

This has NOTHING to do with priming the motor. It's not a fresh motor, you were just doing a head swap. You DO NOT need to prime a motor after a head swap unless you take an obscene amount of time to complete the job. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that he (your mechanic) didn't bleed your lifters and one of the rocker arms was thrown off and now it's wedged between a cam lobe and the head.
My next guess would be that he totally botched the timing and the valves are now contacting the pistons. Either way, I feel like this is the fault of your mechanic.

I was hoping someone would give me news that my block wasnt total junk. I will pull off my Valve cover off today at some point and check to see if a rocker arm is wedged in there. My next question is what would be my next move to get it running if this happened?

Your mechanic didn't turn it counter clockwise ever did he?

No, he did not. And when he was trying to turn it with a breaker bar he didnt put any crazy force.

 

[ktyr5151]

UPDATE: so i took the valve cover off and checked to make sure evrything looked good and it looked perfectly fine. Rocker arms were still in place and nothing was lodged anywhere.

 

[RvlutionMtrsprt]

I'd release the timing belt and remove the cams then see if you can turn the crank. If it frees up, do a leak down test and see if the valves are bent. It will be a miracle if there's no damage.

You also might want to start by removing the starter. I guess it's possible that it broke in such a manner that has the gear and flywheel lodged so the motor won't turn. Lastly, have you checked to see if there is oil in the motor?

 

[SrKegler]

How much material did he take off the new head? It's possible he took material off then used a standard head gasket and that let the valves touch the pistons.

I can't figure out the lock up though. Even with bent valves, the starter can turn the engine over. I'm with everyone else, mechanics fault. Most likely he didn't bleed the lifters.

 

[ktyr5151]

I'd release the timing belt and remove the cams then see if you can turn the crank. If it frees up, do a leak down test and see if the valves are bent. It will be a miracle if there's no damage.

You also might want to start by removing the starter. I guess it's possible that it broke in such a manner that has the gear and flywheel lodged so the motor won't turn. Lastly, have you checked to see if there is oil in the motor?

Yes there is oil in the motor. But i was thinking last night and when the head was pulled off (the first on that was warped) the guy who we brought it to to have it resurfaced said that the cams were junk and looked like they were being starved of oil. So maybe nothing else was getting oil either and it seized up.

 

[RvlutionMtrsprt]

If you pull the cams out you'll see damage from oil starvation if that's the case. You can go through the hassle of pulling the pan out if you want to inspect the rod bearings. I'd pull the starter first to rule out the easiest, although least likely, possibility. If you're pretty certain it's seized, you can also just pull the motor out and tear it down on a stand till you find the problem. You kinda have to decide if you want to go through the diagnostic work with the engine in the car, digging deeper and deeper until you find the problem or just pull it. You roll the dice with your time either way.
Did you look at all the cam caps to see if they're in the right places and facing the right direction?

 

[ktyr5151]

If you pull the cams out you'll see damage from oil starvation if that's the case. You can go through the hassle of pulling the pan out if you want to inspect the rod bearings. I'd pull the starter first to rule out the easiest, although least likely, possibility. If you're pretty certain it's seized, you can also just pull the motor out and tear it down on a stand till you find the problem. You kinda have to decide if you want to go through the diagnostic work with the engine in the car, digging deeper and deeper until you find the problem or just pull it. You roll the dice with your time either way.
Did you look at all the cam caps to see if they're in the right places and facing the right direction?

I didnt check the caps... I just figured that they were fine because the head went through a machine shop that specialises in engine work.

 

[SrKegler]

I wonder which set of bearing caps he used. If he put the old caps on the new head it could cause the cams to sieze. They need to be aligned bored when switched from head to head. Not interchangable.

 

[jimbob_843]

WELL! I assumed it was "torn apart" as the op said.

 

[ktyr5151]

So i tried turning the car over yesterday and it seems like the starter cranks it but it struggles doing so. The crank still wont budge.