how can you tell if the motor is locked up?

Question

i have a 99 ford taurus that i know has a busted head gasket, we have used 2 different things to try to seal it up and it doesn't appear to be working. well, we don't drive it far or long but yesterday my husband was driving it and it sounded fine but then all of a sudden it started knocking and there was a big *boom* and i died, now when we try to crank it all you hear is a click. so i was wondering if we possibly could have blew the motor or could it have been something else? also i would like to know ways to check if the motor is blown? i looked at the oil dip stick and there isn't any metal in it. it wasn't smoking or anything. and no leaks either.

i guess i should add that it has been sitting for a couple of days and when he drove it he only got about a block away before this happened.

red: the car has 187000 miles on it, whoever had it before i did drove it alot

Answer 1

dont even bother pulling plugs or anything, until you put a socket on the crankshaft pulley and try to turn it. (youll need a good sized ratchet). doesnt turn? yep, blown motor. (if you end up replacing, make sure to check and make sure its not something with the flywheel or tourqe converter/ transmission locked up. its extremely rare, and doesnt sound like your problem, but i always check before replacing a motor. unbolt the touque converter, make sure that baby moves. dont go to any of that trouble untill you confirm the engine doesnt spin, and your ready to do a big job. )

Answer 2

Look at the oil on the dipstick. If it has water in or or some foam or looks brown and rusty then water has leaked into the motor and things are pretty bad. You can not seal a head gasket no matter what you do. The compression and combustion pressures are extremely high. The ONLY repair is to remove the heads and replace the gaskets. The heads are made of aluminum and could be warped or burned through because of the blown gasket. A machine shop can determine this. Essentially you need an overhaul. There is a good chance that the motor is locked up but it would be hard for me to describe what you need to do to determine if it is. Your motor needs to be rebuilt. Sorry.

Answer 3

best way to tell if it is blown is to take out the sparkplugs and look into the holes with a flash light and see if any of the pistojns are busted.
If none of them are then get a socket set and try to turn the motor by hanmd on the crank pulley the one at the bottom and have another person watch the pistons if all of them move its something else

sounds blown to me though

Answer 4

Sounds like one of your valves for your coolant system is locked up and it's ceased up due to not functioning right so more then likely it's internal damage and i'm guessing you used some sort of sillicone based substances which clogged one of the coolant passages so you'll need to have someone rip appart the block and replace the head gasket and have someone clean the passages of your engine...

Answer 5

that sounds very bad. a boom is not good. if you have a blown head gasket water could be getting into your cylinder and water doesnt compress so that could have been the boom aka your engine blowing up. go to a mechanic asap. if its blown junk the car. probably not worth fixin

Answer 6

It's stories like that which keep me away from that brand.
Come on the car is only 8 years old, probably under 90,000 mi.

Answer 7

your engine is junk, yuo now have 2 optins and i recommend the first, 1. buy a different car, 2. replace the engine

Answer 8

sounds like motor locked up

Answer 9

Sounds like you did major damage.

Answer 10

I' sorry----the engine is blown------you can prove it by putting a socket wrench on the vibration damper------that's the big nut---------if the engine is free you will be able to turn it-------------if you cannot the engine is seized;