my car was driving great ever since i owned it, full power, no problems at all. well tonight i was driving about 55mph coming down an over pass, the light ahead was red, so i slap it in nuetral, and coast to the stop, somewhere in between putting it in nuetral and coming to the stop my car dies, no noises of any sort. i try to start it, and the starter just clicks to the flywheel, like the battery was dead, i tried jumper cables, same thing, it just locks up, the motor wont turn, you can see the pullies trying to turn but only slightly, we try to push start it, and the wheels just start hopping, like the motor is seized up, but im not sure, anyone know what the problem is? what i should do or check?
1989 Iroc-Z 305 TPI 5 Speed

 

check for power at the starter, check the starter, check grounds

 

Make sure the starter bolts are both there and tight, might be causing the starter to bind.

 

it cant be anything to do with the starter, we tried to push start it, and the motor didnt even move when i dumped the clutch, i tried to turn the motor by 5/8" socket and breaker bar on the crank pully, it wouldnt budge either way, not even a little. i pull the #1 spark plug to see if something was inside the piston, spark plug broke in half, and when i finally got it out, it looked normal. someone told me maybe the timing chain broke and got jambed inbetween the to gears, but i dont know because i didnt hear any noise when it stopped running. its sitting on the side of the road right now, im gonna hook my trailer up and tow it home, and get further into this, any help is apreciated.

 

well when you get it home check your oil first then pull all the plugs and try and turn it over by hand with a socket .....

 

i checked the oil, and it was low, im not sure if it was too low or not, it was about half an inch below the lowest fill level, and i think the distance from the bottom of the fill level to the top is one quart, so i figure i was two quarts low, and that is from the car sitting for 24hrs, so all the oil drained back down, i dont know how it got that low, i just did the oil change a month and a half ago, or about 800 miles, and i check the level about once a week, and it has always been at normal, and it does not leek any oil either, and if it was too low, the oil pump would have shut the fuel pump off not allowing it to run, but i can hear the fuel pump working correctly. could running the car 2 quarts of oil low seized it up. would putting some oil in and then try to crank it brake the motor loose.

 

2 qts low ain't good but it shouldn't cause you problems unless you run HV pump and ran the pan dry at upper rpms.

 

i dont believe im running a high volume pump, i think it is the original pump, what do you think i should do, i dont want to have to take the motor out and trash it for another one, unless i have to, and it is not going to turn into a parts car, it is in too perfect condition besides the motor

 

Pull all the plugs and try to crank it over.

 

I second that. And remove the starter completely so, as someone else says, to make sure it's not binding up the flywheel. If it still doesn't wanna crank, put some Marvel Mystery oil in each cylinder...just drip a little down the spark plug holes...give her some lube! And might wanna run a 50 amp start to the battery if you have a starter/charger....to save the batt and give you some more ***** cranking it over.

 

i removed the plugs, tried starting it, same thing, wont budge, tried turning it over by hand, wont budge. i removed the starter and tried turning it by hand, wont budge, reinstalled starter. i put marevel mystery oil in the cylinders, and tried cranking it, wont budge, waited a little bit to see if the oil would settle and tried again, wont budge. what should i try next? this is horrible, i had no idea that a perfectly running motor could just seize up like that without any signs. maybe shes jealous because i just bought a 91 Z28 5.7L

 

Damn dude.....if it wont budge with no plugs and no starter.....definitely sounds like seizure to me. I wonder what in the hell would cause that though except like extreme overheating or no oil, or water in the engine.

 

Take off your serpentine belt then try to turn it over in case your alt or something else belt driven seized

 

i already tried it with the serpentine belts off, all the pullies move freely. there wasnt any water in the combustion chamber, i dont know what to do.

 

i drained the oil today, and it was a nasty brownish color, i know oil is brown new, but new its like a clearish brown, and the oil that i drained is like coffee with a lil bit of cream in it. i know that cant be good. i also check the coolant in the radiator, and it is almost a white color, it usually is brown from rust, in fact i checked it a week before this incident, and it was light brown coolant, which is normal (for my car), and now it is white. About 3-4 months ago i replaced the intake gasket, runners gaskets, plenum, ect. ect. becasue it had a little coolant leak on top of the intake, but that problem was fixed, what is going on here? any input from anybody on these oddly colored fluids.

 

Blown head gaskets, intake leaking, cracked heads or cracked block. Most likely the head gaskets have blown.

 

sounds like you may be leaking water internally into the engine and leaking oil internally into the waterjacket......sounds alot like a blown headgasket to me but ya never know could be any of the above mentioned...

 

ok with all that, what would have caused the motor to lock up? the water in the oil would seem like the culprit, but why all of a sudden with no signs of danger?

 

didnt you take the plugs out allready ??

were there any water in the cylinders when the plugs came out ???

i had the head gasket blow on my pickup with out any warning what so ever just got tired of being there i guess..LOL..it sucks but id almost say its the problem from the sounds of it

 

ya i pulled the plugs already, there was nothing inside the cylinders that i could see. when your head gasket blew, did it cause the motor to lock up like mine?

 

well after 20 months of being lazy with this car i finally got it out and took the whole engine apart. and still with the heads off and the only thing rotating is the short block, the engine will still not turn over. the heads seem to be in OK condition. i have yet to take the oil pan off to see whats going on in there, but heres some pics of the combustion chambers, looks pretty nasty, but i dunno.

 

I can't really tell from the pics, but what do the cylinder walls look like...they should be nice and shiny and have fine little scratches in them at about a 45* angle to the piston, there should be no other marks, and the scratches should be so small that you will need to look really close to see them, also...all that debris in the cylenders....that's from you taking off the heads I hope, it doesn't look like you were burning any water, if you were the leaky cylinder would be steam-cleaned and look brand new, sounds like you may have spun a main bearing, when U get the pan off take some pics of the rod and main bearings so we can see what they look link