I haven't had my car run for more than 10 mins in almost a year now. I've done quite a bit of body work, its just taken me so long in between school.

Yesterday I went out to start my car, it started up...idled irradically and ran incredibly rich for about 15-20 seconds and then stalled. The fuel system is stock, the only thing I have changed are my spark plugs (denso iridium) and my o2 sensor.

I went to start the car back up to see if I could listen and maybe diagnose the problem, no start. The starter shell over the starter gear cracked, almost right off. I'm going to assume the flywheel is not spinning correctly. Does anyone about how much force it should take to move the flywheel(it still spins right now and I am praying nothing happened to my crank shaft)? And has anyone had any similar problems w/ the spec lightweight flywheel?

When rebuilding engines at college we had to make sure the engines crankshaft turned correctly after the rebuild, it took about 10-15 ftlb to move the crankshaft on a 4 cylinder honda or chrysler motor. I would imagine a cavy engine would be more or less the same effort to turn. It sounds like the car has not been run a lot for at least a year, it is a safe bet to say that the oil has returned to the oil pan and most of the parts are not lubricated as well, if the oil has been unchanged in a year then it will be very dirty and possibly thicker due to the additives breakingdown. There is a possibility the engine is seized and the starter motor was damaged trying to turn over the engine. Keep in mind this is just an educated guess.

Thanks Jason,
Hopefully its not seized up...that would suck. I'll run some fresh oil in it and see what happens.

Thank god my engine isn't seized. Anyone else have any ideas? Could it just been a defect in the metal?


<img src="http://www.twistedcustomz.com/sig.jpg" alt="cr0nus" border="0">