Posted By: Big Bad Bee
Crank won't turn... Help. UPDATE... UGH!!! - 08/20/11 01:19 AM
Okay guys, I bought the engine I posted about a couple weeks ago. 440, removed from a crashed mud bogger, edelbrock performer intake, deep sump pan. The guy dropped the price to $380 with the trans. Sold.
Fast forward. I got the engine home, pulled the trans, pulled the plugs and valve covers.
Everything looks clean with a light surface rust on a couple of the rocker towers at the front of the left head. Spark plugs had rust around them but I think the thing was stored a year and still has mud on it from its bogging days. Those two plugs with the rusty threads near the electrode were on the front left. I thought maybe moisture could have crept in from the exhaust port if the valve were open? There is no sign of breakage. One push rood was loose enough that I bumped it and it popped from under the arm. I can't spin the crank. It goes 1/3rd turn and goes clunk. So I pulled the pan. No shavings or ground metal. Oil is nice and smooth. All the rods, pins, pistons, cylinder walls, bolts, crank look fine. As I tried to turn the crank again I heard what sounded like a clash up on the left front... like the piston clunking into a valve.
What's next? I guess I strip her down, check the cam lobes and lifters. Everything looks so nice and moves pretty freely until it stops. The oil pick up has no metal in the screen and looks brand new.
Fast forward. I got the engine home, pulled the trans, pulled the plugs and valve covers.
Everything looks clean with a light surface rust on a couple of the rocker towers at the front of the left head. Spark plugs had rust around them but I think the thing was stored a year and still has mud on it from its bogging days. Those two plugs with the rusty threads near the electrode were on the front left. I thought maybe moisture could have crept in from the exhaust port if the valve were open? There is no sign of breakage. One push rood was loose enough that I bumped it and it popped from under the arm. I can't spin the crank. It goes 1/3rd turn and goes clunk. So I pulled the pan. No shavings or ground metal. Oil is nice and smooth. All the rods, pins, pistons, cylinder walls, bolts, crank look fine. As I tried to turn the crank again I heard what sounded like a clash up on the left front... like the piston clunking into a valve.
What's next? I guess I strip her down, check the cam lobes and lifters. Everything looks so nice and moves pretty freely until it stops. The oil pick up has no metal in the screen and looks brand new.
The converter is just a junk 11" stock piece. 
The motor was said to be a running unit. It had the trans bolted to it and more than one guy here suggested that there was a converter bolt backed out and hitting. A little moisture from sitting a year around here, especially with the carb and exhaust manifolds off wouldn't be unusual. I just was excited at how fresh the thing looks but confused at why it didn't turn because the bottom end is completely clean with no sign of a running failure. I've disassembled motors before but this is my first possible rebuild, so go easy there, big guy... 
Please let us know what you find 
) in that cylinder several times, take a wire brush or wire wheel on a drill motor and knock the heavy rust out of and then see if you can beg,borrow or buy one of the glaze breaker cylinder hones to smooth that bore up so the piston will come out 
Go from there. Do you have access to a competent crankshaft grinder? If so you may want to have the crankshaft offset ground to BB Chevy rod journal size and stroke the stock crankshaft to 3.91 stroke 
KB makes several really good sets of forged shelf pistons in different compression ratio for that combination using a 7.100 long H beam BB Chevy rod for the 440 blocks 
Get to scrubbing that rust away, it ain't hard 
THE BIG GUY