engine trouble

[vircar]

i just purchased an 80 spider 2000 im the 3rd owner . from what i was told by the 2nd owner the car is either on its 2nd or 3rd engine the problem is that he claims the car overheated and he put it in his garage and left it there for over 11 years told me that he would start the car at least once a week until the car would not start anymore . now heres the problem i brought the car to a repair shop who specializes in fiats they try to start the car but the starter over heated and engine didnt turn they remove timing belt and the cams move freely as does oil pump they try to move the crank by hand and engine only turns 3/4 of the way and then stops cylinders move up and down has anyone ever come across this problem

 

[kmead]

The auxiliary shaft which runs the oil pump and the mechanical fuel pump could be out of of time. The mechanical fuel pump is driven by a cam on the aux shaft that can contact the crank on a 2l twin cam. You don’t want to force it as it can break the aux shaft and blow it out the side of the block.

Alternatively if it overheated, one of the cylinders had coolant get into it and the cylinder has damage that is preventing the piston in one of the bores from going all the way to the top.

Another possibility is that or their is a bent valve contacting a piston. As it is bent and being held open the camshaft can rotate with no issues.

 

[vircar]

we pulled the head off and found that 2 of the cylinders got coolant in them and sat there for over 11 years

 

[Dan Sarandrea (Phila)]

we pulled the head off and found that 2 of the cylinders got coolant in them and sat there for over 11 years

Hi Spiro, did the coolant cause corrosion of the cylinder walls? Light corrosion can be addressed by a machine shop with honing, but heavy corrosion will require boring to an oversize. You have to keep your fingers crossed that the corrosion isn't deeper into the bores than the available oversizes, otherwise the block will have to be sleeved, or scrapped and replaced with a new or serviceable used block.

I have to say that the shop has not covered themselves in glory so far. Given a car that hasn't run in years, the first thing they should have done was removed the spark plugs and then manually turn the engine over by hand to see if the engine is seized from the rings rusting to the bores, and to look for exactly the condition you describe, hydrostatic lock from coolant in the cylinders.

Hopefully this is the worst news, and things get better as you evaluate the condition of the rest of the car!

 

[vircar]

hi dan dont know if you know Marc Matzer and Bob Zecca they are working on the car they did take plugs out and turned the motor by hand they cleaned the cylinder walls and everything so far is fine the car has been garage kept all its life the body is solid and the interior . thanks for the input