Motor seized - what happened?

[burninator]

I recently bought a '92 ATX with 244,000 km (151,00 miles) on the clock. Shortly after taking possession of it, the engine seized.

Some notable aspects to this:

* There were no obvious symptoms. No knocking. Oil pressure was fine. No overheating.

* It happeneded very suddenly. I thought it had just stalled. I attempted to re-start it (and completely fried the starter motor in the process... there was smoke everywhere)

* It failed after a very short trip - I had only gone about 3 miles at the most (I had driven it about 30 miles earlier in the day withough incident)

* No metal chips in the oil

* Previous owner had put relatively viscious oil in it (maybe this caused oil starvation in the crankshaft bearings?)

I noticed it seemed to lack some low end power and I was planning to get it looked at by a trusted mechanic friend. Obviously he's looking at it now..

Has anyone seen anything like this happen? Is it a common problem? I'm trying to figure out what might have happened, exactly.

Also, I posted to the appropriate forum asking for a motor. If you know where I might be able to get one (Pacific North West, or Canada), please let me know, because I have to decide whether to rebuild or replace soon.

Rob

 

[sdpatt]

By viscous oil, do you mean in the range of 20W-50? That would indicate that the former owner was aware of connecting rod or crankshaft bearing problems and was covering it up with the heavier weight oil. Anything heavier than 10W-30 is not recommended by the owners manual and would be used only to compensate for bearing weakness. You may want to take this up with the previous owner.

 

[Blue-By-U]

Sadly, I think was Scott said is correct regarding the previous owner. It's a buyer beware world out there jpshakeh

 

[burninator]

Well, the motor has been stripped down, and one of the con rods is bent. The crankshaft bearing for it probably seized. All this after I put just 30 miles on it after purchasing it!

And yes, the oil was something like 20W-50. It's clear the owner was indeed hiding a known defect (I should have been suspicious about how clean it was). Since he hid a known problem, it looks like there may be legal recourse (it appears there is some legal precedent for this).

Apparently the crankshaft might still be ok though, but suffice to say, it's going to be expensive to repair. I'm not sure what to do at this point - ideally I would put a motor in from a wreck, doing the 60K servicing on it. But that comes with its own risks and unknowns (let alone just finding a suitable motor!). It would be nice to be able to boost HP while I'm at it, so at least I get some benefit from this sorry incident.

Rob

 

[SHO--ripper]

I have a motor. LMK if you want it.

 

[Bank of SHO]

My condolences. It seems dishonesty is the norm in all things now. Try to make the best of it. Easier said than done, I know.

cry
Tom