Open for suggestions engine frozen-so far

[Crobitaille1959]

Got the engine and tranny out, mounted on a cart. Pulled all plugs and sprayed w/PB Blaster and WD40. Been sitting 24 hours. Removed clutch slave cylinder and pulled fork back w/clamp. Tranny turns by hand (yay) engine is frozen so far. Removed harmonic balancer and placed 27Mm impact with breaker bar and 5’ cheater. Just broke the breaker bar. Been trying to turn but so far no luck. Has oil and no coolant is present in the oil. Cylinders look ok. Aside from giving more time for the penetrant to work, I’m open for suggestions.

[Harry]

Wow.  It sure sounds as though you have a heat seized engine or one where something has broken and there is mechanical interference.  I expect the head is on the engine?  A broken and captured timing chain could be a possibility.  Normally, I would advise against using that kind of brute force because if indeed something is bound up, you risk damaging parts that are otherwise undamaged.  If a reasonable force is applied in both directions (just to see if it will turn a little bit in the CCW direction) without result, you know something is wrong and a teardown is going to be required.

Regardless, I would begin taking the engine apart - especially remove the head.  This would provide a great visual indicator of what the problem might be.  That just leaves the block/crank (assuming you also remove the FIP).  With the engine out of the car, it's relatively easy to flip it over and remove the oil pan, then open up the crankshaft bearings and see what they look like.  It doesn't sound good, though.

Keep us posted.

Harry

[ja17]

Turning the engine at the flywheel perimeter will give you many times more mechanical advantage than trying to turn it at the crankshaft bolt. Probably good that you broke your breaker bar, otherwise you might have broken off the crankshaft bolt!

[ja17]

Try putting it in 1st gear and rock it back and fourth.

[mdsalemi]

If there ever was a case for sending this out for a professional rebuild, this is it. Everyone is just guessing. Instead of trying to unfreeze the engine, accept the fact that it needs to be rebuilt.

Not the answer you want, but not everything has a simple solution.

[ja17]

Inspect it with a bore scope inside. Occasionally you can get an engine to break free and run just fine after a few warm-up cycles. If too much corrosion collects in the cylinders, movement of the pistons can cause the rings to get packed and stuck as they scrape the corrosion off the cylinder walls. You probably don't have anything to lose at this point. Complete engine rebuilds are running 15-25K these days.

[mda]

I had the same thing and I was repairing the engine. The reason was trivial. The ignition distributor shaft drive in the housing is jammed. Steel and aluminum are not friends. Try to take it off and turn the engine back on.

[zoegrlh]

Listen to JA17, Joe is an authority on these engines.

[MikeSimon]

I have been successful freeing engines up with Marvel Mystery Oil. Pour in the cylinders and let sit for 48-72 hours, if you are not in a hurry. May not hurt to try, before you do something drastic.

[Pinder]

I used Marvel Mystery Oil also with success. let it soak in for a long time.