Im doing a B18C swap. the motor is out of the car on the a crate. nothing attached to the rotating assembly (flywheel, crank pulley, etc), is touching the ground. i was trying to set the motor to TDC in order to change the water pump and timing belt when my friend and i noticed that the crank would only turn from 90 degress right of TDC to about 3/4 the way around clockwise (i know you arent supposed to turn the crank against normal rotation... but we were desperate.) at either of these stopping points it completely hits a wall. not slowing down. completely stops. i suggested broken rod. my friend suggested that since we had drained the oil 2 weeks prior that it might not be correctly lubricated. an acura/honda certified tech confirmed that it quite possibly could be a broken rod or piston to valve contact. the dealer i bought the motor from suggest dripping some Honda ATF down in the spark plug holes to lub up the piston and cylinder walls to try and break it free. so... im stuck and i need to know what the hell is wrong asap. any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

well if the motor is assembled your working against compression and you dont have any lubricant

 

against compression? so, the guy i bought it from claims he compression tested the motor b4 it left the warehouse. is this what you are referring to?

 

one more addition to the original post. when i refer to us turning the engine clockwise it was only because the engine would not crank in normal rotation. it was at a wall there and we found the other wall going 3/4 turn against rotation. it turns between two points whichever direction just not past those points

 

Try pulling all the plugs first, and then see if you can turn it over. You should be able to, unless there is a serious problem. Dripping ATF into it won't do anything but lubricate the cylinder walls slightly and reduce compression leakby on the piston rings.

 

are your cams 180 out?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Madness &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Try pulling all the plugs first, and then see if you can turn it over.</TD></TR></TABLE>

the plugs are already out although the acura tech guy said to do the same and just look down there with a flashlight and see if the pistons are moving correctly. ive been away from the project all day and havent had time to do that yet

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by projectTeG &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">are your cams 180 out?</TD></TR></TABLE>

dont understand what you mean

 

if the cams are a 180 degrees off timing. the valves and pistons could be coming in contact with each other.

 

in order to check this can i just use the markings on the cam gears and crank pulley or do i need to pull the head off. the timing belt is off btw

 

bump cause of deadlines

 

bump again

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DAmnquickDA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">in order to check this can i just use the markings on the cam gears and crank pulley or do i need to pull the head off. the timing belt is off btw</TD></TR></TABLE>

You could use the markings on the cam gear for TDC of the cams.

Remove the valve cover and double check the cam position and if its broken holding a valve open.
You could also take of the pan and take a look, or might as well pull the head off if the cams look good.

 

I'll do that this afternoon.

Any other theories/ideas/feedback as to why the crank is locked???????

 

bump cause this **** is holding me up

 

you need to put your timing belt back on so so the cams rotate with the crank... the pistons are probably hitting an open valve I hope you didnt put to much pressure on it to make it turn.

 

today, with the timing belt and valve cover off and the engine at BDC, i rotated the crank clockwise and watched through the spark plugs holes as the #2 and #3 pistons went down. right before they reached the bottom, 90 degrees before the 1 and 4 pistons reached TDC, the crank hit the wall. none of the pistons were within reach of the valves and it completely stopped. i rotated the crank back and forth a few times and finally returned it to its original location, BDC. each time i rotated the crank it stopped at the same points, BDC and 90 degrees before TDC. i can understand it stopping at BDC if there was piston to valve contact but why did it stop with all the pistons away from the head between TDC and BDC? all of the pistons were in motion as i rotated the crank which makes me believe that the rods are not broken. none of this makes any sense.

 

If the engine is out of the car, and on a stand, why have you not dropped the pan to see what "wall" the crankshaft is hitting?

Also, if you are turning it without the timing belt the pistons are going to hit the valves irregardless.

 

its not on an engine stand, its on the floor. im trying to find someone with an engine stand. but the valves only extend so far down, so if the pistons are all in the middle of the cylinders they cant be hitting. it was hitting these "walls" before we took the timing belt off and when the cams and crank were in harmony. we took off the belt afterward to change the water pump since we had nothing else to do.


Modified by DAmnquickDA at 2:10 PM 6/30/2007

 

bump cause im stuck like the crank

 

afternoon bump

 

have you even tried with the timing belt on?

 

yeah we worked at it for about an hour then we got frustrated and didnt want to expletive anything up while pissed so we just decided to change the water pump... which was a bad idea because now the timing is off

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DAmnquickDA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> it was hitting these "walls" before we took the timing belt off and when the cams and crank were in harmony. we took off the belt afterward to change the water pump since we had nothing else to do.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DAmnquickDA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yeah we worked at it for about an hour then we got frustrated and didnt want to expletive anything up while pissed so we just decided to change the water pump... which was a bad idea because now the timing is off

</TD></TR></TABLE>

how do the valves look(retainers see if a valve dropped)? also is there something jambing the flywheel?

 

as far as we can tell the head doesnt seem to be messed up. we havent taken the head off yet (which might be the next step.) we first turned it with the flywheel off and it was the same. we later put it on for more leverage... but nothing external is causing it to stop rotating.
is there a way i could i tell if a valve had dropped by looking at it with only the VC off?
even if it had idk why it could cause the crank to stop rotating between TDC and BDC where the pistons are far from anything up top.

 

this is such a weird situation and kinda hard to convey over the net so i just might post a video or pics