How fucked is my car

[Blux]

I haven't driven my car in a couple of months because I've been driving the fiance's 02 Pontiac.

Her car has A/C and I haven't felt like driving mine since the A/C is fucked.

Well I went to drive it to the store tonight and noticed the tire was low. I started the car up and grabbed my 12V air pump and hooked it up to the tire.

While I was letting it run I walked about 50 feet back to my apartment to grab my cigs off the patio. I heard my car die...

I went back over to it and it wouldn't start, it was trying to start, but seems like its not turning over.

I pulled the dipstick out and the oil was almost empty Apparently I have a leak somewhere...

Is it 100% that my engine is seized up? Or is there something I can try?

[roasted]

Originally Posted by Blux

I haven't driven my car in a couple of months because I've been driving the fiance's 02 Pontiac.

Her car has A/C and I haven't felt like driving mine since the A/C is fucked.

Well I went to drive it to the store tonight and noticed the tire was low. I started the car up and grabbed my 12V air pump and hooked it up to the tire.

While I was letting it run I walked about 50 feet back to my apartment to grab my cigs off the patio. I heard my car die...

I went back over to it and it wouldn't start, it was trying to start, but seems like its not turning over.

I pulled the dipstick out and the oil was almost empty Apparently I have a leak somewhere...

Is it 100% that my engine is seized up? Or is there something I can try?

what happens when you try to turn the starter? Does it sounds like the engine is turning over, or does it just go click, click, click?

If you know nothing about cars its hard to tell if the engine is seized, unless you get a wrench and try to rotate the crankshaft by hand

[Blux]

It acts like its trying to turn over but can't. That's what worries me

Its too dark outside now to try to turn the crankshaft, so i'm going to give that a try tomorrow...

I talked to my father (20+ year large diesel mechanic) and he said to put some oil in it and pour a little Marvel Mystery Oil in the top of each of the cylinders.

I guess if the engine really is fucked now is the time to get that japanese motor for my car

[komokazi]

Yeah, that japanese motor.... >_>

[888]

It's either too hot of weather that's making your engine act up while starting ... or its your alternator ... maybe your battery is weak ? ... fuel pump maybe ?

[The Cheshire Cat]

Check your battery first. If that's good then throw some oil in it before you start it again. Also make sure that there is coolant in there and that it's in decent shape.

[Blux]

Brand new battery ~2 1/2 months ago. Also changed the coolant the same time I did the battery.

Just went and check the car again a few minutes ago and the oil is completely empty...

Fuck...

[1983]

Find the leak... Make sure to check the seals around your oil pan. And what your dad said about putting oil in the cylinders he wasn't lying.

Also look to see on your oil pan and other areas that the paint isn't all bubbled up and chipping off rust. I had that happen to an old truck of mine and I had to clean off the pan of all the rust and most of the paint and get under there with some metal epoxy (JB weld) and "mush" it over the rusty spots that were leaking oil until it plugged up... Smoothed the JB down and added some primer and a few coats of rubberizing agent and she was as good as new.

Al

[Blux]

Pulled the plugs today, put a whole bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil in the 6 plug holes and put 3 quarts of oil in the motor.

Also found oil on the front 3 plugs... I changed the front valve gasket a long time ago and it may have not seated right

Going to let it sit for a couple of weeks and keep adding MMO to the plug holes every couple of days...

If this doesn't work then I think its just time to scrap this piece...

[MediumD]

A new battery doesn't mean a good battery, or a charged battery. Inspect and clean the terminals, then have it charged and load tested at Autozone/OReillys. Start with the free stuff first. If it turns out to be a bad or discharged battery, have your alternator tested as well.

Adding oil to the spark plug holes is fine, just make damn sure there isn't too much in any cylinder before trying to start it or you may hydrolock it. Which is bad. There isn't much point to adding oil to the cylinders more than a few times over a few days.

If you added 3qts and the dipstick was in the acceptable range, and the car was just idling when it was running, you probably didn't seize the motor. Also, if you had, you would have heard it knocking, and it would have taken longer than a minute or two to seize.

[Blux]

Thats the thing though...

When I checked it after it died on me there was NO oil in the engine at all...

I even waited a few hours to let it settle back down into the pan (if there was any) and there wasn't any oil then either...

[IIIII]

Did you put a wrench on the crankshaft bolt to see if the engine could be turned?

Sometimes a seized motor can be un-seized and made to run again after being freed with a wrench, if the engine is not damaged too badly.

But if the engine can not be turned via the wrench then it is probably too far gone to bother with short of doing a rebuild.

If there was not a lot of knocking before it died then the engine may still function.

[vovka351]

Get that oil leak fixed first off. next, voltmeter on the battery, shouldn't be reading much lower than 11v... up to 14 is the acceptable range for SLAs (which car batteries are, hurr).

Don't flood your pistons with oil (an incompressible liquid), they're meant for compressing gas(state of matter, as opposed to liquid/solid). Hydrolock was already mentioned in this thread...

At least clean your spark plugs, if not get new ones. I bet it's the oil on the plugs that was causing most of the trouble. You should probably try to diagnose how it got there and prevent that from happening again.

[1983]

Originally Posted by IIIII

Did you put a wrench on the crankshaft bolt to see if the engine could be turned?

Sometimes a seized motor can be un-seized and made to run again after being freed with a wrench, if the engine is not damaged too badly.

But if the engine can not be turned via the wrench then it is probably too far gone to bother with short of doing a rebuild.

If there was not a lot of knocking before it died then the engine may still function.

I know a fella that took the head off a seized motor and threw a piece of cedar post up in that bitch... A little oil and a lot of lovin with a sledge hammer and he had that bitch spinning again.

Al

[Blux]

Originally Posted by IIIII

Did you put a wrench on the crankshaft bolt to see if the engine could be turned?

Sometimes a seized motor can be un-seized and made to run again after being freed with a wrench, if the engine is not damaged too badly.

But if the engine can not be turned via the wrench then it is probably too far gone to bother with short of doing a rebuild.

If there was not a lot of knocking before it died then the engine may still function.

Haven't had a chance to try and turn the crank by hand yet. As far as sound goes I wasn't really focused on the engine when it died, but I didn't hear anything strange from it.

[IIIII]

Originally Posted by 1983

I know a fella that took the head off a seized motor and threw a piece of cedar post up in that bitch... A little oil and a lot of lovin with a sledge hammer and he had that bitch spinning again.

Al

Did he try to turn it with a wrench first?

[MediumD]

Originally Posted by Blux

Thats the thing though...

When I checked it after it died on me there was NO oil in the engine at all...

I even waited a few hours to let it settle back down into the pan (if there was any) and there wasn't any oil then either...

Dipsticks do not go all the way to the bottom of the pan. Generally if the oil level is right at the bottom tip of the dipstick, there's around half the usual capacity still sitting in the pan. Of course there could be less than that, but just because it didn't show on the stick doesn't mean there was no oil.

Unless you opened the drain plug and nothing came out, you can't say exactly how much/little oil was in there.

[1983]

Originally Posted by IIIII

Did he try to turn it with a wrench first?

He tried allot of things before the scream of "fuck it!".

Al

[Blux]

It lives!!

Didn't put the plugs back in it yet because its too fucking hot outside, but I did go hop in it and give the key a turn.

Start spun the motor over no problem.

Now when I get some free time I get to check the oil leak issue and figure out the rest from there