I have a 1995 Honda Civic , as everyone knows those typically come with a D15B7. So I bought the car for 300 dollars and was told it has a cracked head , false , took valve cover off tool head off and it’s fine. Installed new head gasket , intake manifold gasket and exhaust manifold gasket and it still wouldn’t even crank. Took everything back apart again , and I noticed in cylinder one , piston won’t even move I turned the crankshaft pulley clockwise , and it moves about 90 degrees than stops. I came to the conclusion the engine wasn’t seized because I could turn the pulley and it moved but it stopped , so my question is , is the engine seized are is it something else that’s causing it to bind up

 

You can pull the engine and disassemble it to find out what is wrong or you can shop for replacement engine.

 

If the head is still off Ide pull the pan and make sure there is nothing crazy down there hanging things up. Also make sure that the timing belt is completely off and out of the way.

Next try filling each cylinder with automatic transmission fluid over night let them soak. After a nice soak come back and try and slowly work up to a full rotation. Rotating counter clockwise at the crank when you can, if your lucky its just a ring stuck in the bore from the engine sitting. Maybe able to work it loose and rehone the cylinder if it needs it.

 

@Nave43 , sounds good , could it have been something with timing ? I also couldn’t put tension on the belt either when I took it off aligned the cam and put the crank at tdc then turned the cam to put a little tension on the belt before I tightened the tensioner bolt it wouldn’t move , that’s what made me believe the engine was seized

 

Were you able to turn the engine by hand before the head was removed?

Was the head off the block when you tried turning engine here^?

 

These engines are interference and if they are out of time the valves can run into the face of the piston. Making it quite hard to turn past a certain point. Sounds like you should have been in time tho. If the head is off im curious to see how the bottom end turns over by itself after a good soak like i mentioned.

Side notes:
Always take the plugs out when turning over the engine by hand with the head on, just makes things easier.
I use the crank to put tension on the belt while trying to hold the cam in place.

 

@muellersfan @Nave43 i had the head on and timed the engine , I tried to tighten the belt by using the crank pulley and it moved to a poi then it stopped , then at that point I noticed it wouldn’t move so I thought it was something with the bottom end , and yes I took the head off when I noticed the piston wasn’t moving , something I didn’t do though was take the timing cover off completely and the belt , so should I try to do that ?. And you said some the cylinder with automatic transmission fluid ?

 

The block is toast. Rebuild or buy a replacement engine.

Also don't assume that the head is fine.

 

Figured

 

Never turn the engine over with the head on and the timing belt off. Fine tuning to line up is fine but never full rotations.

Sadly Muellersfan is probably right here but yes. Remove the head, remove timing covers, remove timing belt, pour enough ATF into each cylinder to cover the face, then try and turn the crank by hand. Does it still bind? My guess is the answer will be yes. If so let it soak in that automatic transmission fluid, pour in more when needed and try and gently work it past the point it sticks. If you cant get it to turn over like this the block is deff toast.

:edit: is it possible the starter is stuck in the flywheel? Never heard of it happening but just a thought.

 

@Nave43 I don’t think it’s the starter my man , replaced that amongst other things , I’ll try to soak the cylinders than I will let you know how that goes.

 

Was just a thought. There are some good videos on youtube with some more extreme methods to get things rotating again aswell. If you dont plan to rebuild the block more forceful methods maybe worth a shot. Just search up seized engine on yt, this is a common issue with people working on older vehicles that have sat for awhile.

 

I'd drop the oil pan and look up from the bottom before bothering with a tranny fluid soak. I bet there is a melted bearing.

 

@TomCat39 that would cause it to do that ?

 

Spun bearing at redline rpm. D16Y8's are known for this exact thing. The other thing is low oil. And lastly, plain old wear allowing oil pressure to drop enough to spin a bearing on redline driving.

 

Deff could be yeah its like the Achilles of the y8s. If you wanted to check out the bearings, drop the pan. Then grab onto the bottom of the rods where they attach to the crank and give them a shake. If it has alot of movement that bearing may need closer inspection. You can also look for metal in the pan and "glitter" in the oil if it hasn't already been changed a few times. This should give you a good idea of if its the bearings without pulling the caps.

 

If it spun a bearing, most likely you will see a blackened cap and possibly dripping metal as the bearing melted. That or a bent rod is all I could imagine that would prevent a piston from moving it's full cycle but still move a part of it. Even then the bent rod sounds more likely but I did picture a previous owner seizing it pretty solid then using a breaker bar and forcing it part way. This could possibly free it up for partial movement.

Really though, dropping the pan to poke around a little bit is a fast and easy way to rule out the worse case scenarios. If nothing seems awry there, then go for the soak.

You will also be able to see 97% of the cylinder bores since the head is off and rule out weird issues there too, leaving nothing but the rings or bad mechanical timing and putting a piston to an open valve.

 

Be aware that soaking the cylinders in ATF could potentially cause the piston rings to seize in their grooves, though I think the block already has other more severe problems.

 

Thanks for that. I sort of wondered about that myself. I don't like ATF for this application. If anything I would use an AC Delco product I heard that melts carbon build up and helps unsieze rings over ATF. I find ATF is best for swelling rubber seals, not for melting carbon. Piston Kleen on the other hand, that does work wonders on carbon.

Found it, I heard the AC Delco fuel injection cleaner is some really potent stuff and will free stuck rings. This stuff pictured in the video:

 

I know this all to well!.. spun 2 D16Y's ran low on oil and revved it a bit too high and spun the rod bearings.. I try not to rev my D16A past 4500 rpm lol I'm too scared to blow another engine haha

 

From what ive heard the D16A is more like a z6 than a y8. Idk why exactly but the z6 bearings seem to hold up better.

 

Interesting I can say they also come with a Y8 style Intake manifold and are sold as a replacement for both Y8 and Y7 long blocks but I swapped the funky restrictive Y7 manifold on to make my life easier when it was swapped it in the chassis.
But I still dont got the ***** to rev it higher plus its a daily driver so no need to rev it past 4500 imo.

 

+1 for spun rod bearing. Just happened to me. Motor seized. I finally broke it semi free but would only turn 10-20 degrees. Pulled it apart and #2 rod bearing spun and was jamming it up. Block was fine but crank was toast.