I sent a post a few months ago about a 302 engine I put together for my 64 F100 was locked up. I thought about it and decided the eccentric I installed on the end of the Cam to work the fuel pump, on the FI engine was hitting the front cover and was locking the engine up. I took the front cover off the engine and the two piece part was not hitting the front cover. When I 1st got this engine home I installed the crank and it wouldn't turn over after I torqued the 1st 1. I took it back to the machine shop and they said the grease I used on the crank had it locked up. They took the crank out and wiped all the grease off the bearings and used oil( which I had always used before) on the bearings, torqued the mains and the crank spun easy. That was a little over a year ago. My question is does anything special need to be done to an engine that won't be used for a while? The other ones I have built were used within a day or 2. I took the plugs out and also spayed WD 40 in each cyl. primed the oil pump and it still won't turn over.
i use Lubriplate 105 on the bearings , motor oil on the pistons/rings/cylinder walls. moly grease on the cam/lifters. if the engine will be sitting for awhile i do not adjust the lifters except for #1 on TDC of the compression stroke. that way all valves are closed. also seal off the intake the 283 in my `36 sat this way for 7 years before i fired it , and it is just fine. the 283 in my `30 coupe sat for 3 years
One thing that needs to be done, is keep it at a constant temperature...if it gets heated and cooled every day, and it's not completely sealed, a little bit more moisture will enter the engine every day. This will condense inside and eventually rust the bores etc. I hope you figure out what's wrong, and that it doesn't take too much to fix it.
Is it connected to a transmission? How about the starter, it is engaged and stuck to the flywheel? Check the simple stuff first then move on to the complicated stuff.
I was wrong once, that is only because I thought I was wrong. Beaner is right, check the simple, and easy stuff first.
Just so I understand correctly, Did you assemble a motor and didn't run it and are trying to start it now after it sat for some time? Did the motor turn over when you finished assembly? Small block Fords use a plate to retain the cam that sits between the cam and timing sprocket. From the factory there was a spacer on the camshaft and a flat sprocket. Most replacement sprockets have the spacer built in so the spacer on the cam is removed. I did encounter a case where a factory type sprocket was used without a spacer on the cam and the camshaft was locked to the retainer once the gear bolt was tightened. In that case, the crankshaft would move back and forth very slightly due to slack in the chain. A freshly bored or honed block contacting aluminum pistons can lead to corrosion over extended time periods. If the cylinder walls were well lubed with oil or some type of assembly lube it shouldn't have happened. Rings can stick on the walls due to rusting. If I didn't plan to run an engine for some time after assembly, I would put oil in the pan and turn the engine over then, on the engine stand, turn the block so one side is down and turn the crankshaft. Turn it so the other side is down and turn the crankshaft. Roll the block over fairly quickly so it's upside down for a couple of seconds to distribute some oil. Then pour oil in the spark plug holes and install some used spark plugs. I remove the carburetor, install a block off plate, seal up any other openings and store it in a horizontal position. Before starting I'd remove the spark plugs, turn the motor over by hand then with the starter to expel the oil from the combustion chamber.
Yes it is bolted to an AOD and no starter or even wired for one yet. I assembled the motor last spring after the machine work and because of health problems was not able to work on it until the fall. Now I'm just trying to turn the engine to put on the converter nuts on it. It's installed in my truck. I put the cam and timing chain on it then and didn't turn it over after that. I worked at dealerships as a line mechanic for 26 years, but the engines I built were installed and ran at the very least, the next day. The crank won't turn with the timing chain off of it, so that takes the cam out of the picture
Seems you're left with pistons stuck in the bore. Soak them with plenty of penetrating oil. You could try using air pressure with an air hold fitting in the spark plug hole of a piston half way down in the bore. 100 psi on a 4 inch diameter piston will put 1250 pounds of pressure on it. There should be at least 2 pistons that are part way down but one might go up when the other goes down. You will have to loosen the rocker arms to close the valves unless it is on the compression stroke. A last resort that I usually only use to remove highly corroded pistons is use the air hold fitting but install a grease fitting in it and pump the cylinder full of grease. A grease gun can provide as much as 7 to 10,000 pounds per square inch of pressure so 40 to 60 tons of pressure on the piston. They normally move well before the maximum pressure is reached.
Put a big screwdriver through the starter opening and pry on the flexplate ring gear teeth. Usually you can get quite a bit of leverage, and if it's not stuck real tight will come loose. This is assuming that the short block DID turn over a year ago after assembling, which I assume it did or you wouldn't have been able to get at all the connecting rod nuts to complete the assembly. "When I 1st got this engine home I installed the crank and it wouldn't turn over after I torqued the 1st 1. I took it back to the machine shop and they said the grease I used on the crank had it locked up. They took the crank out and wiped all the grease off the bearings and used oil( which I had always used before) on the bearings, torqued the mains and the crank spun easy." The above sounds like you had a cap on backwards. I can't imagine a grease viscous enough to keep the crank from turning after torqueing one cap.
Or all the caps, was plasti-guage used? The WD-40 will evaporate fairly quickly, try ATF or MMO in the cyls.
I have an almost 3 ft. long pry bar that looks like a screwdriver and I've stuck it in the starter hole and it won't turn over the engine. It seems to be the rings keeping it from turning because it will turn a mi-nute amount in either direction, then stop. The engine was bored 40k over and the crank was turned and miked when it was locked up by the grease. I was sure the people at the machine shop were wrong about the grease, but after they wiped the grease off and used oil it was ok. The caps were not put on backwards before or after the grease thing. The air pressure thing might work, but I have to go to the parts store and get one. The dealership supplied one, so I don't have one. I have squirted each cyl. with Blaster penetrating oil and will let it sit while I'm gone to the parts store. Thanks for the help. I never built an engine that wasn't used right away.
You might want to try Kroil or Knocker Loose. New rings scrape the oil off the fresh bore and it depends how damp the air is where the engine is. It's probably a piston that is at or close to the top or the bottom of a cylinder where the crankshaft doesn't have much leverage. Another tip when leaving an engine sit, if you look at the timing mark and turn the crankshaft until the timing mark is at about 20 degrees, no pistons are at the top or bottom.
WD40 is shit. I recently pulled a fresh bored block out of an 8 year storage in a plastic bag, every bore was rusted and pitted. I had used a can of WD40 on it before I put it in the bag, plus rubbed each cylinder down with ATF. The bag wasn't airtight, and moisture got in even though the block was in a closed building. The WD40/ATF drained to one side, leaving the top side dry, which then rusted. I should have rubbed the cylinders down with some grease, but hindsight is 20/20. It was only a 4.3 Chevy V6, so no great loss other than my $ spent on having it bored. I'll only use WD40 in light lubing situations now, it ain't worth a shit at rust preventative unless you spray it every few days. It will dry up or run off.
If you can't move it with a 3 foot prybar, I'd start taking things apart and finding out whats up. Last thing ya wanna do is break something that'll cost you more money and time.
You may not believe this but , I have used COKE to free up old farm machinery that was stuck from Mid West weather for 35 years . Just pour it in the plug holes let it soak for a few days and all I have used it on was free as new . What do you have to loose , it's stuck now and will need to be torn down if you can't free it up
The problem is in the rings, stuck to the cylinders. The crank will turn a very small amount either way. A fitting to put air into the cylinders is hard to find these days. I tried using a compression tester hose, but it looks the same as my air hose fitting, but is bigger and the hose won't hook-up.
Maybe a parts house has some fittings to make an adapter. Can you take the gauge off the connector and screw in a fitting that fits your air line? Otherwise it looks like a KD tool 901 set and you might need a hose.
It isnt something going on with the bellhousing or torque converter,flywheel is it? If you can turn it back and forth some, that doesnt really sound like stuck rings to me. sounds like something is hitting??? I would have never thought about grease on the bearings locking one up either, that doesnt sound rite...but then Im not a engine builder either,so.....
I've used Moly grease on main & rod bearings w/o problems, but...I've seen old Moly grease that sat for a long time that was hard as rock. But his grease was fresh.....
I made a fitting for pressurizing the cylinders using an old spark plug, snapping the porcelain off and drilling out the guts. Brazed an air fitting on and Bob's your aunty.
Borrow one of those gizs for looking in the bores; or get one of the cheap ones that hook to a cell phone. Think that would help you decide if it is worthwhile to keep trying to get it loose or pull it down.
The parts store doesn't have the right size for the plug. A compression tester hose won't adapt to my, or any other air hose. I tried using a fitting that comes with a compression tester and it leaked air. Summit has a correct hose and I will order one. I could make one ,but no longer have the stuff I need to braze. The converter turned over easy before I mated the engine and trans.
Did you set the Torque converter in correctly? 3 steps going in. If not it could bind up & will break if started.
On a ford torque converter there is sometimes a drain plug that has to line up with the hole in the flexplate. You can get the studs on the torque converter to go through the flexplate holes but the drain plug could be in the wrong spot causing The bind you are describing. If it is the rings stuck to the bore you may as well disassemble hone and replace the rings. If they are that rusted and stuck I doubt they will seal properly and you will always have problems.
yup, on the torque converter...you say that right now you're trying to put the nuts on. Does the converter move forward and backward a little bit, with none of the nuts installed? (should be able to move it, less than 1/8"). If not, then it's jammed. If it moves, then it's not your problem, the engine has something wrong inside.
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