Hello EvoM. I will start off with some background on what happened first.

So last weekend I drove the car about 20 miles to get some dinner. I didn't boost it at all, it was just a casual no rush drive. After dinner I get back to the car and start it up. I hear a loud buzzing noise coming from the engine bay that sounded as if the lifters were ticking 5x as fast as normal. I drove it about the block and pull into a gas station. I looked around for any fluid, checked oil, everything looked normal. So I decided to drive it home.

After driving another block and getting on the freeway the chaos the ensued. I was at around 40 mph in fourth gear and I started feeling a huge power loss. I then heard a loud pop noise from the engine bay and shut the car off immediately, while pulling to the side. I get out expecting to see fluid or smoking and nothing. I checked under the engine bay, in the engine bay and the tail pipe and it all looked normal. When I go to try and start the car again it lets out one crank and then locks up. I then called a tow truck and brought it home.

Trying to diagnose it

So this weekend I started investigating. I noticed the fuse to the battery cables had blown so I replaced that and the battery (optima yellow relocated to the trunk) and I tested all of the wires leading to and from the battery. I also tested the starter and everything appeared good.

Where it gets bad

I then decided to see if I could turn the crank manually. I hooked up a socket and began to turn. It turns freely until I hit a certain point, then it refuses to go. I can turn it back and try to start the car and the starter will try and turn it and get stopped at this point as well. The starter sounds very good/problem free. Without turning it back, the car won't try to crank when using the starter at this point.

So EvoM, is my motor toast?

 

I am thinking you had a lifter go bad or something in your valvetrain and you broke a valve which is sitting on top of the piston.

 

sounds like either way youre gonna have to pull the head and see whats going on in there

 

sounds like u jumped some timing and bent some valves

 

Hmmm...I'll definitely have to look into that.

 

I was talking to a friend about checking this next actually. I have less than 30K miles on my timing belt but haven't had it changed in about 5 years plus the car was sitting a lot.

 

Maybe snapped the timing belt or jumped timing but does not sound too good i wish you luck

 

Is the timing belt still there??

 

I had the same situation happen to my 4g63 motor. Ended up I bent all my intake valves. Check your timing marks. Compression test if it can spin.

 

Could be tensioner wasn't holding tension and the belt moved, jumped time. Happened to me but mine only moved one tooth. I was able to save it though and it only jumped one tooth.

 

Not toast but needs at least head work - maybe more.

 

If the weather is permitting I'll check it out this weekend and let you all know what's going on. Either way I'm not to thrilled at this point on what I may find.

Thanks for the tips everyone, stay tuned!

 

Sounds like your valves and pistons shook hands...if you have a borescope you can pull a spark plug and take a look through there. Good luck to you, hope it goes well.

 

sounds like a built block/head is in your future. good luck, hope there isnt too much damage