Engine Lock please Help

Ted · March 8, 2020

Hi All,

I bought a reconditioned engine and replaced it at Sunil Motors Boralesgamuwa. After two days of the replacement, in the morning I went to the emission and it was passed. Then I waited around at home 1hr and started to go to a near by place. After around 1.5km the car was suddenly stopped.

There was an AC Idle issue due to Sunil Motor mechanic adjusted wrongly. I adjusted normal idle correctly but could not adjust AC idle valve since I had no proper allen key for that. So for all earlier trips I did not switch in AC. For this small trip I had to use AC since my wife was with me in car. When idling engine is stalling since not enough air. Kind of this happened before the sudden stop. I tried several times to start but engine rpm rises comes back to zero. Forcefully I peddled accelerator and got into a nearby spaced area. While I was forcefully peddling I engine gave a huge thud noise.

Mechanic came and tried to rotate the engine. Engine locks at one point when turning.

I still cannot think what happened. Because,

1) Engine was a very good one since we carefully inspected rubber hoses, sensors, coolant passages, cam shafts, even the thermostat was like a brandnew one.

2) After the replacement I drove around 50kms and nothing was wrong in the engine. If mechanic had misaligned the timing belt this could have happened sooner. Am I ryt?

Anyway mechanic will start to dismantle engine on tuesday.

Highly appreciate your comments.

AVANTE · March 8, 2020

Did you try pulling out the spark plugs and giving it an inspection? They can tell a few things.

Also what is the condition of the engine oil? A car having contaminated/bad oil can stop like that.

Also, no matter how new the thermostat, sensors and hoses, they are easily replacable on a removed engine (like a kid playing with building blocks) so those could have been changed. But I suspect the problem isn't with the condition of the internals but rather the belts, bearings or oil. Do update after the mechanics inspection.

Edited March 8, 2020 by AVANTE

Ted · March 8, 2020

8 minutes ago, AVANTE said:

Did you try pulling out the spark plugs and giving it an inspection? They can tell a few things.

Also what is the condition of the engine oil? A car having contaminated/bad oil can stop like that.

Also, no matter how new the thermostat, sensors and hoses, they are easily replacable on a removed engine (like a kid playing with building blocks) so those could have been changed. But I suspect the problem isn't with the condition of the internals but rather the belts, bearings or oil. Do update after the mechanics inspection.

Engine oil was full and clean. Since this is a new engine I always checked oil level and coolant level for any reduction before a trip, middle of a trip and end of a trip. Sure I will.