Bad week...

[BYprodriver]

Originally Posted by shadrach74

Bad plugs aren't the concern, hydraulic lock is. It can bend connecting rods.

However, given the description of the break down, it seems unlikely that permenant damage occurred.

Thus my correct answer to her direct question!

[TNcargirl]

Thanks for the replies. I'm feeling a little better. The shop is super backed up so I'm giving them their space and hopefully they'll call me later in the week with the breakdown. I did tell them if they suspect coolant in the cylinders I'm not willing to pay for an engine rebuild so if anything is cracked just close it up. (i'll roll it) I'm able to handle the cost for oil cleanup if nothing else is hosed. I guess i'm just having a hard time getting my head around what they 'think' it is because I've never had an issue with over heating or coolant leaking. The ground in my garage and the area where it was towed from is spotless. So I'm prepared for the worst.... I'll follow up to this post with details once I have those. Thanks again for your input, it's been great for my mental health!!! -rena

[Jamesp]

Try and have the engine turned over by hand (using a wrench on the front pulley bolt) with the plugs out. If it rolls over then life is getting good. Disconnect the AOS line to the intake, plug the vacuum lines and have them crank the crap out of it with using the starter with the sparkplugs out. A lot of cranking as there is oil in the intake you want to clear. After that, it's spark plugs back in and try to start it. With the best of luck, it fires up and you are on your way.

If it does not turn over by hand with the spark plugs out, that's a bad sign, but there is no harm in trying to break it free by rocking the crank back and forth. I've never understood the don't turn the engine backwards advice. When I rebuilt my engine after an IMS failure I innocently rotated the crank both ways with wild abandon during assembly with seemingly no ill effects. If the engine is "stuck", and it can be freed by working it back and forth, and getting it started using the strategy above works, the best case is the long term reliability and life of the engine is suspect. The worst case is it won't restart, or runs for a short period of time then fails.

The up side is that you were pulling into a parking lot when it failed, so the RPMs and load on the engine were likely to be low. That makes bending or breaking something less likely.

my recommendation is to disconnect the AOS, have the mechanics get it to turn over with the plugs out, crank it with the plugs out to remove as much oil as possible from the intake system, then reassemble and fire it up and hope for the best!

I hope this was helpful, and I hope your car is fine.