I am looking at a camaro thats for sale in my area. It's a 99 with 80k miles and a 5-speed. They say they had it at the shop for a fuel problem, but a short time after they got it back the engine would not turn over. The guy I talked too thinks it got gas past the rings into the oil and has seized the engine. How probable is this? And can I just change the oil and push start it. Or will it require a complete rebuild?

Also, is what this guy said even possible? I am going to look at it this WED., any suggestions on how to test it. Put it in 5th and see if I can push the car to test the engine or what?
Thanks for the information in advance.

- Nick

 

Gas getting past the rings would not seize it up. If anything it would spin and not fire for lack of compression.
If you can get it up in the air, try turning the motor by hand. use a large breaker bar with socket on the crank bolt.
But more then likley, you have other problems.

 

If the engine cannot be spun by hand as GMPARSTGUY indicated, either something is broken internally, or coolant got into the cylinders and rusted things up, or a good amount of coolant got into the combustion chambers causing hydrolock. Try removing the plugs & see if engine can be spun. In any event, it won't be a cheap fix.

 

So, if I can turn the engine and it wont start it may have an unrelated ignition/starter problem? I don't know how much the guy knows about engines so I really question his diagnostics. If he left his lights on or had his starter motor just go out at the same time he had other work on it, then it would be a good buy. But I'm not in the mood for a rebuild or an engine replacement (did that last year, takes to long and its too wet right now.)


Well thanks again.

--Nick

 

If it can be turned by hand, but the starter won't spin it, then it is most likely an elecrical problem. Could be the starter, cables, battery, or starter control circuitry.