I am posting this for a friend. He is having the weirdest problem with his 97 civic manual. He is trying to set his timing to TDC before he works on it, but he says he cant turn the crank no matter what. The car is in neutral, the spark plugs are out, and he's removed all the other drive belts cept the alternator and timing belt. Everything checks out from what he's told me and I cant think of why it would do this... anyone?

 

Doesn't sound good.

I know you already did but, I suggest verifying it is neutral.

 

he's not pushing hard enough

 

I do mine w/ the plugs in and belts on, so yes make sure it's in neutral or park.

 

Ok i just asked him how hard he is pulling and he says about 80lb/torque, so I know he is pulling hard enough. Another thing is he says it wont even budge 1 cm so i know it's not the gears holding it in place.... gears would let you move it a little bit then keep it from turning. Is it possible the head/valves are jammed somehow?

 

With it in gear, can he roll the car forward till its in TDC?

 

what did the car do? What is he trying to fix?

 

The car was working fine... he just wants to change the timing belt since it's about that time for recommended replacement.

 

well if the car starts, the crank can obviously turn. i'd say he's not turning it hard enough even though you said otherwise.

 

i think his pistons are hitting the valves.

 

huh?

 

What's he trying to use to turn it? I've got a 25" breaker bar that works well. He probably just isn't pushing it hard enough. If you can start it there obviously isn't anything stopping it from turning.

 

well, i figure that if he's trying to turn the crank and the valves are open....then wouldnt the piston hit it....making the crank hard to turn???

 

like he has already removed the timing belt and trying to rotate the crank without moving the cam.

 

ok, he used a 4 ft pipe and he got it to turn. He said it went "pop" (i dont understand why it would do this) and after that it now moves freely.

 

make sure you didn't break any valves. It sounds to me that your friend took the t-belt off before setting the engine on tdc.