Posted by D Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 11:40:53 :
In Reply to: engine problem...suggestions, please? posted by Jerry in Idaho [64.139.238.43] on Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 11:14:39 :
If you can put a hand crank or big wrench on the flywheel pulley and turn it a little ways but then it stops abruptly, I'd suspect it threw a rod. If it was seized, there shouldn't be an abrupt stop; it would either not turn at all, or would be tight and hard to turn the whole way. I don't think a distributor shaft would bind it up like that, but maybe it could. Assuming it has oil, it's strange it would seize up, though I had a small 4-cyl flathead hercules that had a clogged oil passage and ate up the #1 rod bearing even though the rest of the engine was pristine. It seems to me that to seize up to where you couldn't turn it, a piston would have to seize in a cylinder, which isn't very likely to happen while the engine is running unless it ran out of oil. I had a neighbor who had lawnmower that would do that when it got hot, and he'd just spray it with the garden hose and start it up again. I assume yours still has the flathead. If it was an overhead-valve engine there would also be the chance of a valve falling down into the combustion chamber and jamming against the top of the piston.
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