Did my 440 died? - Locked Engine?

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Josecuda

Josecuda

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Hi there! My 1968 Barracuda has a 440 engine that came out from a running 1971 Chrysler New Yorker. Before making the 440 swap in the Barracuda the heads were refreshed, changed all 16 valves, added a Mopar Performance 4452783AE camshaft (Adv. Duration 268/284, Lift .450/.458 ) timing chain replaced, added a MP dual plane intake and some tti headers. No crank, rod or cam bearings were replaced during the process. The engine ran good for about a year until last night.

I was driving the car hard and suddenly I heard a sound coming from the engine, something like a slack sound or a belt that just broke. I took my foot off the gas and the engine died. Tried to crank it up and just heard a "Click" sound with no crank at all.

Today I tried to turn the engine using a breaker bar on the crank pulley bolt and couldn't turn it over by hand.

What should be the next step? Should I tear apart the engine too see what happened or is there any other inspection or test I should do before engine disassembly?

Any help appreciated. Thank you!
 
Pull the drain plug into a clean pan. If the oil sparkles with a bunch of metal your in trouble.
How was the oil pressure?
 
pull the valve covers and rocker arms. Might have broke a chain or dropped a valve.
 
Are you running a oil pressure gauge? And how has it read recently? Being how you're running bearings with some miles on them & running it hard.....I'd personally want to take it apart and see what's happening Jose.
 
over rev'd my 440...made a clunk sound and shut down...snapped the cam in half and disintegrated #7 piston...hope yours is less
 
If you enter the security code properly, it may unlock your engine....
 
I think this is part of the fun, take it apart and make if stronger and faster.
 
Its toast, no point in screwing with it in the car. Yank it and put it on a stand. Probably lost oil pressure and spun a couple mains
 
it didnt die, it's just asleep :D

time to pull it down and rebuild

find a good machine shop they will walk you through each step so it gets done right
 
Pull the trans and see if it turns.... If not.... Your going to go in the motor....
Booooooooooooo...
Keep us posted on whats up>>>
 
Try cranking it with the trans in neutral, just to be sure its not a locked converter. Then I would try and ease the crank counterclockwise, not too hard so as to loosen the crank pulley bolt. If she turns even a little bit back then crank it forward again and see if it feels like it hits something. If so, its likely done for! U could also pull all the plugs and see if its hydro locked, may have blown a head gasket.
 
If you can't physically turn it with a wrench in either direction (or very far in either direction) just pull it and tear it down carefully to figure out why.
"ding" it's done...
 
Thank you all for the wise advice shared in your comments!!

Even though a locked engine is nothing to laugh about, I sure had a laugh on this one:

krazykuda said:
If you enter the security code properly, it may unlock your engine....
Click to expand...

While the engine was running oil press was around 35-50 psi

Drained the oil and has some sparkles floating around. No large metal pieces as rings or bearings in it though.

Definitely it's done. Time for teardown and rebuild it in a stronger/ faster way :glasses7:

I will post some pictures of the damage I find when the engine is out for rebuild.
 
It spun and threw away the rod bearing for cylinder #3. Now I'm just figuring out whether to rebuild this 1971 440 (forged internals) or rebuild a 1976 440 I have laying around (cast crank)
 

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