My son left for a trip to grandma's house without adding oil to an already low 350. He called to say the car was rattling like valves with no oil. I advised him to pull over and check/add oil. He did but could not get the starter to crank the engine afterward. I got there to confirm that the starter is trying to spin up the engine. They described some smoke coming in just before the engine noisily limped in to Albertson's

Broken Rod?- I'm leaning this way because it is not cranking at all.
Broken Valve? I'm guessing not as it probably would crank.

Any ideas where to start?

Ed

 

Seized bearing or spun bearing letting the rod catch on the internals of the engine. Can you rotate it backwards any at all?

 

No oil? The engine welded itself together. Even if you were to break it free, it will be a noisy oil user worse than it was before.
Sorry, but your son learned the hard way the importance of maintaining an engine that is already known to use oil.

 

yep what he said!! no oil = no more motor
start looking for a new or rebuilt one!

 

easy way to tell if its roached pull the dip stick and smell that nasty burnt oil smell, once you have you never forget that smell!!!

 

I pulled the spark plugs- all of them and tried to turn the crank- it is not rotating either direction!

What is the best place to start dis-assembly? Should I assume bearings and pull the oil pan for a look? Should I just hoist the engine out and then look into it? I pulled a 350 out of a C20 3 years ago and swapped in a crate. I was just about to sell that truck... hmmm, maybe I see a swap in the near future- I digress, I don't know what it is yet.

Where should I look first to determine damage?

 

My best guess would be that it siezed a piston or several, happens often on engines ran out of oil. If this is the case like the other dude said you'll need an engine or need to totally rebuild that engine. Bad stuff...

 

I would assume the worst,complete dis-assembly is in order here.
I would suspect both fried bearings and scored or melted pistons,in other words this motor is now junk and in need of a complete rebuild or replacement.
Camaro69 called it right,lesson learned the hard way.

 

what yr camaro we talking about? it would be cheaper to find a good used motor and do a rebuild on it or pick up a rebuilt long block. damage has most likely been done to the heads, crank, cam, block and pistons. you will not know if any of these parts will need replacing or machine work untill its taken apart.

 

To lock up the engine like that, serious internal damage was done. It has to come out any way you slice it.
Fighting to get the pan off while it's still in the car would just be a wasted effort.