Literally, the motor is extremely hard to turn over. With a charged battery and a charger/starter hooked to the battery the starter will maybe turn the engine over 1/2 revolution. With a 1/2” breaker bar on the crank bolt it takes a ton of effort to turn. I even removed the plugs and it’s the same.

Just trying to get a handle on what might cause this. I’m leaning towards a bearing issue, but wondering if anybody else has run into the same issue.

 

Sounds like a spun bearing, what was the engine doing before this happened?

Is the oil low?

Drain out the oil into a VERY clean container then strain it off and see if it's all glittery. If it's glitter then start shopping for a new/used motor.

 

I bought the car knowing zero history on it, and expecting it to not run. But I was kinda surprised when it was so hard to rotate the engine. I didn’t see any glitter in the oil, which even if it is a spun bearing I don’t think would cause glitter since the engine is so difficult to turn over that whatever happened to it likely caused it to instantly die/stall.

I think I’ll rebuild it, was just hoping for a little insight on what to expect, but I know that “hard to turn over” is not much to go on lol. Just hoping the block is still good.

 

If it's hard to turn over physically, there is something likely wrong in the engine. That bearing could already be loose and jammed in the crank in some way, any little part could be broken and getting in the way. You could have a loose rod that's jamming the process.

Pull the pan and the valve covers to look at it. Something is definitely wrong.

 

Yup, lots of glitter and bearing chunks in the oil. Looks like it’s rebuild time. . . . .