Engine seized?

I have a 74 Chevy 350, with a TH350. Everything was working great,
except I noticed a vacuum leak in the carb body. So I change the carb
first thing the next week. Start the car real quick for a sanity
check, then turned it right off to go grab my tools to set the idle.
Now car will not start. Battery is fine, starter is fine. Cannot turn
the engine by hand at all. Removed plugs, still cant turn it. Removed
the oil, no metal in it. Dropped the oil pan. Cross member was in the
way, so I could only feel around. Everything felt fine, and no metal
in the bottom of the pan. No water leaks into the chambers, because
the plugs looked fine. Cant say that I have tried turning motor by
hand in neutral, I may have, but I have always done it in park. The
car has been sitting for a while and I am near giving up. Is there
something else I should check. I am thinking this thing is toast.

I have had the engine jam up on a 70's 350 also. In my case it was the
starter gear jammed into the flywheel. I would try banging on the
starter or loosening it to see what happens. You also might try a
breaker bar on the crank bolt and rock the crank back and forth to
release it.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
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wrote:
>
> I have a 74 Chevy 350, with a TH350. Everything was working great,
> except I noticed a vacuum leak in the carb body. So I change the carb
> first thing the next week. Start the car real quick for a sanity
> check, then turned it right off to go grab my tools to set the idle.
> Now car will not start. Battery is fine, starter is fine. Cannot turn
> the engine by hand at all. Removed plugs, still cant turn it. Removed
> the oil, no metal in it. Dropped the oil pan. Cross member was in the
> way, so I could only feel around. Everything felt fine, and no metal
> in the bottom of the pan. No water leaks into the chambers, because
> the plugs looked fine. Cant say that I have tried turning motor by
> hand in neutral, I may have, but I have always done it in park. The
> car has been sitting for a while and I am near giving up. Is there
> something else I should check. I am thinking this thing is toast.

thanks for the info. I have trouble getting to the crank, so I can
only turn it one way. I may try removing the fan to get a better
angle. I tried moving it with the starter completely off and still no
movement. I was thinking about taking off the timing chain and moving
it directly.

Not the starter gear then. Can you get at the crank bolt from below?

Have you removed the fan belts? Maybe the alternator or something
seized?

Mike

andrew wrote:
>
> thanks for the info. I have trouble getting to the crank, so I can
> only turn it one way. I may try removing the fan to get a better
> angle. I tried moving it with the starter completely off and still no
> movement. I was thinking about taking off the timing chain and moving
> it directly.

yea i took those belts off. I think i will try and turn it again this
weekend, if no dice, then I will remove the timing chain, and try and
turn the cam, and/or the crank. Maybe I will get lucky and it was the
timing chain.

wrote:
So I change the carb
> first thing the next week. Start the car real quick for a sanity
> check, then turned it right off to go grab my tools to set the idle.
> Now car will not start. Battery is fine, starter is fine. Cannot turn
> the engine by hand at all.

Are you sure you didn't drop something down the intake manifold? Hint:
Something that shouldn't be there and now the engine ate it? This is
very suspicious.

andrew wrote:
>
> thanks for the info. I have trouble getting to the crank, so I can
> only turn it one way. I may try removing the fan to get a better
> angle. I tried moving it with the starter completely off and still no
> movement. I was thinking about taking off the timing chain and moving
> it directly.

If you have the starter off you should be able to use a pry bar on the
flywheel teeth and try to see if you can nudge it in one direction or
the other. Normally it wouldn't take much effort at all to get it to pry
it one tooth distance. If that doesn't get it to move then it is
probably seized. But from your description of the events doesn't seem
like that would be the case.

-jim

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>drop something down the intake manifold?
bingo!
too bad....

Which cylinder[s] is/are up?

Remember it could be on either exhaust or compression stroke.

If you can find where it is, you may only need to pull one of the
heads.
Phil

Kruse wrote:
> wrote:
> So I change the carb
> > first thing the next week. Start the car real quick for a sanity
> > check, then turned it right off to go grab my tools to set the idle.
> > Now car will not start. Battery is fine, starter is fine. Cannot turn
> > the engine by hand at all.
>
> Are you sure you didn't drop something down the intake manifold? Hint:
> Something that shouldn't be there and now the engine ate it? This is
> very suspicious.

wrote:
> I have a 74 Chevy 350, with a TH350. Everything was working great,
> except I noticed a vacuum leak in the carb body. So I change the carb
> first thing the next week. Start the car real quick for a sanity
> check, then turned it right off to go grab my tools to set the idle.
> Now car will not start. Battery is fine, starter is fine. Cannot turn
> the engine by hand at all. Removed plugs, still cant turn it. Removed
> the oil, no metal in it. Dropped the oil pan. Cross member was in the
> way, so I could only feel around. Everything felt fine, and no metal
> in the bottom of the pan. No water leaks into the chambers, because
> the plugs looked fine. Cant say that I have tried turning motor by
> hand in neutral, I may have, but I have always done it in park. The
> car has been sitting for a while and I am near giving up. Is there
> something else I should check. I am thinking this thing is toast.

A friend of mine had a similar problem with her Suburban. When her
husband inspected it, he couldn't find anything and still couldn't turn
the engine over. Turns out that a main bearing had wiped and locked up
the crank, unfortunately that meant having to do a rebuild on the
engine. Runs like a ripped ape now!!!