2000 5.4 F-150 200,000 miles.

First of all the engine has been running like a top. Great power and all. There has been a squeak coming from the front of the engine when it's cold, but goes away when warmed up. I had replaced the belt hoping that it was making the noise, but the noise continued.

The wife was passing a farm vehicle the other day. She said the engine started to "squeak" like when it's cold, but much worse and then shut off. She couldn't get it to turn over.

When I got it home I tried to start a few times, but the engine was turning over with so much resistance that it continually killed the battery. I finally got it started, but it would squeak / grind to a halt because of the resistance. I removed the fan belt to check all of the pulleys for resistance and play, but everything seemed fine.

With the belt off she fired right up and runs fine. Oil pressure comes right up to normal on the gauge. The squeak seems to be coming from the crank pulley area. The crank pulley has no side to side play. I understand that the pulley and the balancer are separate? Is it possible that the balancer could be binding up enough to actually stop the engine? Any way to check this?

Update - Went back out and fired it up again without the belt on to see of the pulley was wobbling at all. The engine fired right up and sounded fine...then shut off like the Hand of God grabbed the crank! Trying to restart, it feels and sounds like major resistance in the engine? I figure that the harmonic balancer is shot...but what else?

Help

 

The balancer/bottom pulley are an all in one unit. If your lucky, that's all it is.

 

sounds like you belt to me

 

Please explain how a bad damper/pulley cause the engine to be hard to turn over, since it is external. Sounds more like something was going bad in your engine and finally puked. Do a compression test.