heres a kicker for you, i was cruising the highway like a normal citizen, then all of a sudden the car gets a real bad shudder (like when you have real bad brakes) and it lasted about 3 seconds then the engine just died, i threw it in neutral and coasted to the side of the road. and the engine wont even crank now. i pulled the inspection cover, the flexplate/starter looks fine, i pulled the valvecovers, the valvetrain looks good to the best of my knowledge. only other thing i can think of is the geardrive took a **** and locked up my engine or else... what can you guys pitch in and say?

 

So its not cranking at all? starter clicking?

Maybe a piston or bearing took a dump on you. Is the car at home now?

If so i would try a socket and breaker bar on the crank and try to turn it.

 

i was gonna give that a try tomorrow, it is at home now, i been working last two days so havnt had time to touch it, next two days i have off so its time to tinker. i am planning on pulling the plugs and trying to crank the engine by hand.

 

You may also have locked a pump in the transmission.

 

would that also prevent it from starting in neutral?

 

yes since the converter is engaged into the front of the pump, solid from flywheel to the pump

but not the input shaft of the trans

 

what would have to be done to see if this is an issue?

 

See if you can turn the engine by hand first. If not, you can remove the torque converter bolts from the flexplate, then try to rotate the converter. If the flexplate will not turn easily enough to gain acess to all the converter bolts, you could be in serious trouble.

If the converter turns, but the engine doesn't, you may want to look into getting an engine hoist.

 

i didnt get a chacne to touch the car today, but i will tomorrow for sure.one idea popped in my mind though if i throw the car into a gear, shouldnt i still be able to push it ? and if not is that another indicator the tranny could be gone?

 

timing chain?

 

i run a gear drive. anyone ever hear of those locking up somehow?

 

With the TH700-R4, you'd actually want to get it out of PARK to disengage the parking pawl. Neutral would probably be best, but since there isn't a rear pump, it should move in any range other than PARK. That would only eliminate the transmission behind the pump, not the engine or trans oil pump.

 

By all means, post what you do find. It would be nice if the alternator quit and the battery just died.

 

well schucks, time to get to work on it...

 

Like stated above, best case scenario is an alternator. Take it out and have it tested at autozone or the likes.

 

Or maybe one of the alternator bearings went out and that is what is locking the engine up.
If the alt did go and it died due to no voltage, it would run on the battery for a while and you would probably notice the engine gradually running crappier over a period of minutes until it eventually died. Plus a jumpstart would easily rule that out. 1 vote for 'it's much more severe than a failed alternator'.

 

Sounds like what happened to our '90 Bonneville when the cam broke.

Except it would turn over afterwards. Just wouldn't start.

You probably broke something inside the engine.

 

traviZ wanted me to post the pics of his findings. motor wouldn't turn at all so we pulled the intake and found some pretty big peices of metal in the SR's plenum. I forgot why but he decided to pull the driver side head first and this is what we found

we had to hammer on the piston so that one of the half's wound fall and it did. and.......

yup broken connecting rod and it isn't going any where.

the head doesn't look that bad but there is a small nic

 

jeez! whos rods are those?

 

You never know. A good shop might be able to straighten that rod....


Ouch.

EDIT: Prior to your just "cruising the highway like a normal citizen", what exactly were you doing? How many times was that thing hit with a "little" 250 shot of gas?

 

looks like the rod was about to go superman through the block and probably through your fender lol.

That sucks, you'll need a new short block, and definetly a set of new heads... guess that sums it up to... a whole new engine.

Atleast the cam and intake are salvageable, right?

 

Come on, the head doesn't look that bad. Could've been worse.

 

You did notice where the other end of the rod was, right? Atleast the intake is salvagable...

If you guys get the rod out can you post some photos of the big end? We all need to learn.

 

the bottom end on TraviZ car was stock and had 163,000 miles. at one point he ran a 100 dry shot of nitrous.

the head really isn't that bad and is salvageable. I don't think the cam will be though but it may have made it

we'll post pics of both the cam and rod when its removed

 

Just trying to lighten the mood here, good job!! Thats impressive!! Anyone can blow a motor but it takes a real man to generate that much carnage! I'd be making myself a trophy out of some of those pieces and hanging it PROUDLY on my wall. The damage is done, right. Time to get over it and figure out a plan for the next bullet!

 

That blows! Were all 163,000 miles on this engine? If so, that's pretty good for a performance engine. If you can reuse the head, be SURE to smooth out that nic or else you could have massive detonation on that one cylinder on the next engine. I'd recommend pulling the valves for that cylinder and making certain they aren't bent. Also would be good to see if the guides/bowl area took any damage. It sucks a lot, but I do admire that kind of damage -- a lot better than an intake gasket popped and rusted the engine from the inside out.

 

Damn man... might as well go bigger! 383 anyone?

Sucks though, hope you have the time and money to fix it. Best of luck.

 

Dude......that's the coolest photo ever.... I'd totally mount those and hang em on the wall

 

thanks for the ... compliments guys. lol

im still not sure if the cam is gonna survive or not..the heads will be fine after i send them to a shop to be checked over. itll be a lil while but i will eventually get pics up once i can strip that engine down, so make sure you are subscribed to this thread. however i did pic of a new engine this morning already, a new roller 383 0 miles on it. kb hpy pistons , eagle forged rods, etc..

10.5:1 compression

 

Nice......

 

See...everything happens for a reason!!!!