Seized my engine today!!

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worldcruiser

worldcruiser

Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Threads
34
Messages
597
Location
Raleigh, NC
Website
www.worldcruisers.net
guys I wanted to share with you that after installing electronic ignition today on my 40 I figure I did not seat the distributor properly and seized my engine. What a nightmare my engine had been rebuilt less than 5000k miles ago. Hope to drop the pan tomorrow to take a look. Anyways just sharing
 
Damn Juan, that sucks.:frown: Is this the blue 40, or one of the other 5 Cruisers in your sig that have distributors?:grinpimp:
 
Dropped the pan and do not have a clue what to look for...removed #1 and #2 rod caps and do not even see where the bearings are....#2 smells like burn also took #3 main cap and do not know what to look for.......When I removed main cap #3 was able to turn engine.....any thoughs darin or anyone else??
 
worldcruiser said:
guys I wanted to share with you that after installing electronic ignition today on my 40 I figure I did not seat the distributor properly and seized my engine. What a nightmare my engine had been rebuilt less than 5000k miles ago. Hope to drop the pan tomorrow to take a look. Anyways just sharing
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Oh, no! the oil pump didn't get engaged right... Got my first cruiser that way, was never able to unweld the pistons from the cylinder! Did you see it coming and shut it down right away or did it seize and jam the rear wheel while you were on the road?

Anyway, man, good luck, I'm feeling your pain...
 
worldcruiser said:
Nothing looks broken in there.....I know it is fu@#ed but anyways what to look for??
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Bearings! And measure the crank for out-of roundness, but hopefully the bearings took the brunt of the damage and not the crank...
 
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83bj60 said:
Oh, no! the oil pump didn't get engaged right... Got my first cruiser that way, was never able to unweld the pistons from the cylinder! Did you see it coming and shut it down right away or did it seize and jam the rear wheel while you were on the road?

Anyway, man, good luck, I'm feeling your pain...
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It just died on me on the road slowly stopped pistons are not welded though I was able to turn it today after removing rod caps 1 and 2 and the 3rd main cap.

how did you get yours fixed??
 
I myself would be pulling the entire engine apart again but if i was in your shoes at this time i would PM Markw on here and see what all he says to check. He is a 2f / f guru on here.
 
Talked to Steve (Poser) over the phone last night, and shared pictures of damage. bearings are melted into crankshaft, I could rebuild but he said no sense in throwing money to an F engine (I kind of think it might be worth I liked the idea of it being the original engine)....If I decide not to bother with rebuilding right now, I have two F's engines from two other cruisers....Now I just need to figure out which one runs the best and swap in...never heard them run but the guys I bought the 40's from said they ran good. I am going to do compression tests on both and see which has the best numbers.

I'll let you know....man that F ran soooo good I can still hear it...call me crazy but it does feel like loosing a loved one...just a little
 
worldcruiser said:
It just died on me on the road slowly stopped pistons are not welded though I was able to turn it today after removing rod caps 1 and 2 and the 3rd main cap.

how did you get yours fixed??
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The difference with yours is that I bought that truck from a buddy who was working with me at the time. He ran it a couple of miles and the engine seized to the point where his back wheels literally locked up. I bought it for $500 hoping to repair it, removed the pan, the caps, no problem, but it still wouldn't move, I removed the head, tried to push the pistons down, no luck... I used a specila solvent for removing gummed up oil from seized engines but it didn't help. I eventually got mad and ended up punching a piston out, part of the rings were WELDED to the cylinder walls... Wasn't pretty. I eventually parted it out, used the head on my partner's FJ45 pickup and sold the rest. That is the story of my first cruiser... A real wrenching experience! It never moved an inch from the field it had been towed to...

In your case, I wouldn't worry too much, but the connecting rods and or the crankshaft could be excessively out of round... Check it with a caliper, hope for the best, if worse comes to worse, just install new bearings and see if it knocks, you could be fine...

edit: If the bearings are melted, you can carefully remove the babbit, although I did not have to do this, a buddy of mine did on a seized 3B engine a couple months before, he found the crank was a bit flattened, installed new bearings and it runs pretty nice now, you can't hear any knocking...
 
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Don't feel too bad. I also made this terrible mistake on my 1974 fj-40 a few years ago. I ended up finding a used motor in Florida.
 
That blows, Juan. That screams "V-8" if it were me!!
 
Today I am testing 2 engines for compression to make a decision on I got another F but it is out of the frame if I can figure out how to test it outside the cruiser I will test that as well....one advantage of having a couple cruisers around....

Ramon....no V8 for me I think those with V8s are compensating for small dicks :flipoff2:
Kidding aside...a V8 is tempting....But I know I'll get in trouble really quick:grinpimp:
 
Update:

I am rebuilding the engine..just the lower end....I am going to polish the cam and put new main and rod bearings.....I will get it running again.....anybody interested in a write up on here??

My neighbour is helping me.....he has been a mechanic for 35 years pretty interesting guy he has built and flown his own airplane....look forward to learn with his guidance.
 
OH YEAH!!! Lots of pictures please!
 
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