Poor life choices - C4 content

I've always had a soft spot for C4's. I had a customer in the mid-90's with one that ran the 100mph class in the Silver State. It had an intermittent faulter under hard acceleration that took over a month for us to find driving it around with diagnostic equipment on it.

As far as freeing up the motor. If you can get the flywheel cover off I've had luck with using a prybar to engage the teeth on the flywheel to rock the motor back and forth.

Is it possible that it is something up with the transmission causing the engine to appear locked up?

yo pete,You know when you look for an LS eng. it needs to be from a Vette,oil pan and headers,plus acc.drive location of alt.,a/c p/s pump. are specific,one of the cars I help keep up (1957 Nomad) just had a new LS3 GM crate installed it was for late camaro and all these parts needed changing,so he would like sell them off.but they also won't fit, I don't think. of course the 20 grand it cost for an eng.and Install makes me say 350.

If you don't have one of these, I highly recommend them for turning the engine vs trying to use a socket on the crank pulley.

https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-23800-Flywheel-Turner/dp/B000FN7JE2/

Of course that is only if you can get the inspection cover off.

wvumtnbkr wrote: Is it possible that it is something up with the transmission causing the engine to appear locked up?

I'm pretty ignorant with automatic transmissions. Could the torque converter somehow be locked & preventing the engine from turning? FWIW while the engine oil is pretty black there's no sign of water in it. The trans fluid is still nice and red though.

In reply to GTXVette:

That's the first I've heard of that. I've found & read a couple good C4 LS swap stories online, but nothing was ever mentioned about needing a specific/different pan. From what I found it looks like the C5 headers will work, but possibly require some slight modification, and the only accessory I saw that was a problem was the AC compressor. I'll try to find the link I read that had the most detail.

EDIT: I do know that for the 4L60e, if it's from an SUV(it likely will be) then I'll need to fab a custom tailshaft bracket. If it's from a car supposedly the Vette's 700r4 tailshaft will just bolt on. There's some detail about the SUV tailshaft being attached with 4-bolts vs. a car's that only uses 3-bolts.

In reply to camaroz1985:

Good to know!

I think the tool I'm making tonight to bolt to the harmonic balancer should work. Otherwise it looks like I'll need to unhook the trans cooler lines to get the inspection cover all the way off.

Make sure the trans is in neutral? I don't think am auto can lock it up, but it might be worth trying.

It wouldn't be anything in the transmission. Even if the torque coverter locked up it still couldn't lock up the motor.

Can you get your hands on a builders crankshaft socket? That way you can rotate both ways with a breaker bar without worrying about shearing bolts. Of course you do have to pull the balancer first.

Of course as far as mechanical advantage I think the prybar on the ring gear is the best bet.

I've only pulled a couple of those covers, but you can usually unclip the cooler lines from wherever they're clipped in and have enough room to flex the lines and force the cover through without hurting anything.

In reply to BrokenYugo:

It didn't appear that way, but I only have the car on dollies for now & was lying on the ground next to it reaching up underneath. I need to go through the brakes so I'll be putting it up on stands eventually, then I can get all the way underneath it.

So tonight is when we get pictures of you on the end of a custom made 5 foot long breaker bar?

In reply to Stampie:

If things go well...

petegossett wrote: Day-10(1.5-hours): More setbacks than progress, but that's the way it goes sometime.

So very true. Basically, on a project like this you have to work until you run into dead ends... find things that you need to order... so that next week at this time, you'll have some parts to put on

I'm all too familiar (as, I'm sure, are many of us) with this principle.

so I am not sure of what year may or not, but I do Know the Vette Pan Of which I speak Is AKA Bat wing, Its Lower and wider than truck and camaro Pans,Also the acc. brackets are different from car Body style to truck. there are also brackets to mount a torque arm to different trannys, the dudes on Yellow bullit are where I saw those. but Google is our friend,When I used to post on Chevy High Performance mag.(defunct) The YB folks were not so nice as here,And Lordy lordy where did all them Perv's on YB come from,sadly I used to work for one of them, But he was friends with the people at ProLine (lsX) and they are top tier and Have Jerry Bell(a master chassie builder) working there,there vette runs 10.5 Outlaw with under 4 sec. 1/4's,and LsXperts is 1/2 mile away so I can ask Specifics there,and will to be sure.

P S, heck I am using a 454 so all I know is after the challenge I will buy a dry sump for the B/A BB that will be put in to get My Crankshaft Down to a better Hight from the ground,But that isn't Budgetable for the challenge.

Day-11(2-hours):

Since I don't have gas for my new welder yet I broke out my 10-year old Harbor Freight 110v flux welder.

Now I should probably mention I haven't used it in 4+ years, nor have I welded anything in that timeframe. After screwing with it for 1/2-hour trying to get it to feed somewhat correctly, I ended up with this:

Yes, it looks like total E36 M3. Yet somehow the welds actually held up. Here it is in place.

And about to be put to the test.

After all that...no movement at all. I've pretty much reached the limit of my current tools & talent in regard to trying to free the engine without disassembly, so I'll leave it alone for now & move on to other items - completing the hatch install, finishing & reinstalling the seats, the getting the wheels off so I can asses & update the brakes, suspension, and hubs(if needed).

I'll bring back a real prybar after Xmas and possibly try freeing it from the flywheel side then.

Man that sucks more than ... family site. Hoping that soaking it longer will free it up. So no movement at all going back and forth?

In reply to Stampie:

None. Though to be honest the jig I made was flexing quite a bit. I'm really surprised it didn't break.

That's impressively stuck for only sitting a couple years in Illinois. You sure it's not moving at all? Don't use the cheater pipe for that check. All you can really do is keep oiling it and keep rocking it.

Have you drained the oil yet? IDK how it would get into an assembled engine in an assembled car, but I'd be wondering if water got in there at some point.

In reply to BrokenYugo:

Actually it was in Louisiana, not sure if that it would make it any better/worse than IL. In the mean time I'll keep working on other issues I know need dealt with, and try to be patient & see what pops up for sale. I saw a $250 LT1 tonight, but it's only slightly easier than an LS, so I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I also have a line on a $150 set of 18x10 wheels, if I can get there before they're gone.

More humid I suppose, still, it wasn't sitting that long. I'm not sure how you tell the difference, but I know you have to be careful buying an LT1 as not to accidentally buy the 4.3 liter L99 variant. Though like you said it's probably better to jump to gen 3 if you don't stay gen 1.

to bad its not a manual, we have freed stuck engines by dragging them around the block and doing a few clutch dumps to jolt the engine. not sure if you've done it yet but pulling the plugs can make it a little easier to turn over if you do get it to move, no compression to fight. I would also dump some ATF down each cylinder and let it sit for a few days to maybe help loosen some stuff up.

In reply to edizzle89:

The plugs are out, and I sprayed Freeze-Off in them several days ago, followed by MMO the next day, so it's been sitting 3 or 4 days. If I could get better/more solid leverage on it I suppose it may work free, but at this point I'll start working on other issues, and once I get it on stands & the wheels off I'll take a look at using a prybar on the flywheel.

check your e-mail, I down loaded It,but don't have your e-mail address, just used the website contact info.