last night i was cranking the engine by hand while lashing the valves (i replaced lifters/pushrods yesterday)... all was going fine..

this morning, can't crank the engnie by hand more than like 1 degree in either direction....

how the **** did my engine sieze overnight? i put plastic bags over the lifter galley/intake ports and the valvecover areas...

i took out a spark plug and no water gushed out or anything....

i'm ****ing confused..

i took the belt all the way off for good measure (thought maybe it was getting hung up... no difference

checked the oil.. only like 1/8 of a quart below the full mark..

WTF

if anyone has any ideas, PLEASE share.. i need to have this thing back together today so I could get to a friend's graduation party a few states away!

Thanks... ::

 

Did you over tighten the valves, when you were setting the lash? Loosen the last set you lashed and see if it moves. If it does I would loosen them all and start over.

Mike

 

I shoudl have mentioned that last night I untightened ALL the rocker nuts to the top of their studs (undoing all my 3 hrs work lashing them to begin with) before I went to sleep...

the why for that is really retarded... and i kicked myself in the *** a few times right after I realized taht I didn't need to undo that work.. but thats neither here nor there..

right now, ALL the vavles are fully closed, as there's full slack in the valvetrain because the rockers are fully un-tightened...

 

Are all of the lifters retained properly? (did one spin in the bore?) Are you missing any hardware? (IE is a rocker nut or wrench inside the engine). You don't have the spark plugs installed do you? I bet it is something simple and stupid.

 

Why wouldn't I have the spark plugs installed? The engine normally cranks by hand with them installed.. Could it really build up that much compression that with all the valves closed it can't be turned by hand anymore?

The lifters are all retained.. currently I took the spider to check to see if there was a problem there but there wasn't... but tehy're all flat-side facing forward, matched up with the little eye-glasses..

The rocker nuts are all there... if I lost a wrench into the engine, I don't know how the hell I wouldn't have noticed it.... so unless someone came by and popped my hood at night and stuck a rock into an intake port, I think I'm good there.....

 

If the valves are closed you're gonna have a hell of a time rotating the motor. Pull all the plugs and try rotating it.

 

because of my headers.. pulling the plugs and putting them back in takes about 8 hrs...

can I just tighten some of the rockers so some of the vavles open so i can turn it? (for now) and then lash them all?

 

Yes you can do that.

 

normally some valves are open, some are partially open, etc. With them all closed, you are fighting the compression trying to turn it by hand. Not going to budge.

Cranking down rockers at random to open valves could have real problems if it is done on the base circle and then a lobe smacks it into a piston while rotating. Carefully lash those pushrods that seem to be highest and hopefully that will be enough to enable you to turn the engine.

 

A healthy engine will give you significant resistence to turning but the compression should bleed off over time. Have you gone back to try and turn it,,, if you have not I bet you can now until you agan build up compression. If something like a nut went down into the cylinder I would still expect the motor to rotate more one way then the other.

It should not take you 3 hours to do valve lash,,, unless I am missing something,,, I know this at least on any stock SBC I have ever worked on. Once you find TDC and start you should be done in less than an hour unless of course you have all your plugs in .

What I would do is pull all the plugs and if the engine rotates go back to the start of valve lash adjustment. Do the valve lash, install plugs and fire it up .

8 hours for plugs??,, is it harder to change plugs in an LT1 with headers or a stock engine????????

 

I bet you now have your answer. You are trying to fight compression and vacuum at the same time since your plugs are installed and your valvetrain is closed. Basically your fighting all 8 cylinders instead of one at a time.

Changing your plugs with LT headers should not take eight hours and setting the lash should take less than an hour.

I would not randomly lash valves. If you end up with a valve hitting a piston you will know why I won't. Trust me I know I have 8 Ferara 6000s that are bent with zero miles on them(they were bent turning the engine over by hand).


I had a Chief that used to tell me, "You may not have the time to do it right, but you always find the time to do it over."

Good luck

Mike

 

Did you put it in gear before you went to bed last night? Just a thought.

 

Anaik had it right... although I discovered that independently while outside using a breaker bar to crank it (even after pulling 2 plugs and lashing some valves that were up to get all but 2 cyls without full compression...

My friend had put the car in gear yesterday while playing around with the shifter while I was working on it, but it didn't dawn on me until I yanked really hard on the breaker bar and the car moved about 6"! LOL

Anyway, thanks everyone for the input.. I've got all the valves lashed now, and hopefully no bent ones.. and I've got the intake manifold back on.. i'm just having a lot of trouble torquing all the bolts down to spec in the dark (the back four are a bitch to get at with my tq wrench).

How long do you guys usually let the rtv cure for before you start it?

 

You can start it up immediately. Or to be on the safe side just wait till the morning.

 

You should let the RTV cure for at least 24 hours or you're going to have a leak.