Let us know how you make out turning it by hand. The outcome of that will direct any further actions. If you’re uncertain how much torque you need to put on the crank bolt and are reticent, remove the sparkplugs and try. It should turn very easily without the spark plugs.
The rebuilt engine scenario points this in another direction.
If the starter motor turns when its not bolted to the engine, and you can hand turn the engine over using a breaker bar or something, the engine is seized. Something broke inside the engine. What and why would require some disassembly.
@bing “and you can hand turn the engine over using a breaker bar or something, the engine is seized.” did you mean cannot turn the engine over?
Yep.
If what you say is accurate, you just described running your vehicle until your battery died and you lost all power.
You have a failed alternator and or a dead battery.
You should well know if you ran your engine to death via oil starvation…
If it were me I could tell you every detail of what went on…question for the OP is…did you drive your engine to death? Did you run the engine with the oil light on for over 15 seconds? Did you hear the engine make Terrible sounds prior to stopping? Or did you just drive till you lost all battery power and think the worst?
All questions for the guy behind the wheel.
Blackbird
He unbolted the starter motor and ran that so must have had battery power.
True…However I am reading a post from a person who is actually having to ask someone if he just seized his engine. This is troublesome at best. If you dont know the answer to a question as huge as that one then it makes me believe that said person is very very far from observant. Being a mechanic does have a bit of psychology in it believe it or not. I’ve solved more than a few problems just getting to know a person. LOL Methinks if you cant tell that you just smoked an engine…you probably cant ask the right questions to lead to an answer. Sorry, just how I see it.
Elbow Grease will be the solution to this one…Just do the proper post Mortem mechanically…and the answer will be revealed. It wont happen via this method
Blackbird
The truck gave no indication of low oil or low coolant. The whole thing happened in about 30 seconds, from driving down the freeway to dead on the side of the road. Tried the breaker bar, no luck now going to take the timing chain cover off and see if the chain is broken or bound up.
If there’s no issue with the timing chain I might suspect the engine has spun a bearing.
You state the engine was rebuilt 50k miles ago. Does this mean the crank was reground, bearings fitted properly as to oil clearance, etc or was it a matter of installing a new set of bearings based on nothing more than a visual of the crankshaft journals?
Not sure, I was in Iraq. Had my dad do it for me.
I would still not count this engine out. At least take it to a shop and pay them to diagnose it if you are unsure. Considering you feel it needs a new engine, it might save you lots of money if it is just something minor.
Take it in and don’t say you think it needs a new engine unless you know it is a good shop. Just say it quit running. See what they say.
When my timing chain went with the gears stripped, the engine just pretty much free wheeled and didn’t lock up. Had trouble holding the engine so that the crank bolt could be removed. So maybe that’s its but I wouldn’t count on it. The fact that it was redone at 50K wouldn’t bode well in my mind. At any rate, you gotta do a little investigation anyway to determine if you need a short block or long block. Like I’ve said before and others have disagreed, but I would never open an engine up to overhaul it and just replace instead. Far too many variables and issues that you rely on the skills and knowledge of the person doing the work to insure a quality job.
I agree, I don’t want to take any more apart than I have to. The timing cover will be the last part before I take it in.