the engine seized on my van. what could the problem be?

Question

i was driving my van to the gas station. it started to overheat badly. (its a 1989 dodge caravan) the thermostat works, the fan/radiator wors, yet the engine seized. can someone answer me?>

Answer 1

I had this same year car, and had the same problem. In these engines are two harmonic dampeners, spinning weights, which are driven by a chain under the timing chain cover. The timing chain has a self lightener, but the harmonic chain has a manual lightener that is accessed via a small cover on the timing chain cover. If you didn’t adjust this for a very long time, and the age of the car shows that you probably didn’t, the chain will get very slack and eventually break. Two things happen, one is that the broken chain can rap around the crank shaft and break the timing chain cover, causing a bad leak of oil. The other more devastating problem is this chain also drives the oil pump. It wasn’t until the 90’s that they made the pump part of the crank shaft. You didn’t mention of any of the “Idiot” lights came on indicating a problem prior to the failure.

I ended up removing the engine and having it rebuilt. New bearings, rings, heads, seals, hone the cylinder walls, rebuild the pump and replace all the chains. You can also get a rebuilt block and heads from many different places. Shop around to get the best deals. I wouldn’t fool around trying to get the existing engine spinning again, because the internal damage that a seize can cause will severely shorten the working life in your engine. Not to mention the extensive teardown that will be needed to reveal the root cause of the failure. At that point you might as well replace the block and heads with something you can count on.

Answer 2

Ouch, I hope it didn't seize up from the piston and running out of oil. If so, then the engine is a done deal, for good.

But I wanted to share a story about a car I had that I thought and behaved exactly like a seized up engine, but turned out to be an alternator that seized up.

The car ran fine and it just shut off one day, no warning. I tried to restart it, but it wouldn't turn over. The battery had plenty of juice.
I got under the hood and had someone turn the key. The belts moved about 2 inches and stopped and wouldn't move anymore and the starter wasn't strong enough to turn the engine in this state. I did notice that when the belt moved the 2 inches, that the alternator pulley didn't move with it (it was like the alternator had a brake on it and someone was pressing on it). Anyways, I loosened the belt and verified that I couldn't turn the alternator pulley by hand which verified my hunch, replaced it and everything was fine.

Although a car overheating is highly unlikely to be the same scenario as above, I'm just making a point that it could be something similar to that, perhaps another pulley, like the water pump, or something.

If you check your oil and its not bone dry, then you can probably breathe a little sigh of relief (but you can't rule out the oil pump going bad, which is the same thing as running out of oil). Oil pumps very rarely go bad, so they are almost always the last thing to rule out.

I'm not sure what would be the best way for you to go about checking out my theories as I know working on a van engine can be tricky. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think cranking the engine for 1-2 secs without the belts on/ or loosened up won't hurt. If it does move after doing that then maybe my theory might hold water. Anything other than a seized up alternator would probably be too hard to do and require a mechanic anyways, which will probably be the best judge. I've learned my lesson on fixing little things on cars, over the years, that turned out to be something else (ie replacing coils, ignition modules, when it turned out to be a short in the crankshaft position sensor wire that required a piece of electrical tape). It usually wound up cheaper to take it to the mechanic in the first place

Answer 3

If it overheated badly the rings prolly got so hot the welded theirself to the piston walls, only if the engine will not turn over. Put a breaker bar in the middle of the crank pully and see if you can turn the engine, if not thats what it is. If the Thermo and the Radiator is fine, try checking out the water pump. If it got so hot, Your head is warp also. The best thing to do is prolly getting another engine to put in it.

Answer 4

Check the oil or a lack thereof. This usually the cause of a seized engine. The pistons have no lubrication, get hot and weld themselves to the cylinder walls.

Answer 5

Out of oil or a blown head gasket that hydro locked the cylinder. These engines are well known for head gasket trouble.

Answer 6

not the timing belt thats for particular. you've an electric powered difficulty. i trust a foul coil that is going open at the same time as it heats up yet. . .No clue as to what this secret motor vehicle is except "van" so who ought to probably say!

Answer 7

If the engine siezed up you need another car or another engine.

Sorry

Answer 8

You probably ran it out of oil.

Answer 9

ran out of oil!!!

It's junk now.