Unfortunately my engine is seized. What is the best way to pull it? Pull the engine and trans together? Take the chance and pull the engine with the torque converter and leave the transmission? I’m going to get some marvel mystery oil and soak the pistons to see if it frees up first.

 

Whatever you do don't pull the TC out of the trans with the motor, almost guaranteed to damage something, and it can't go back together that way. The motor will easily come out alone once the hood is removed and it's disconnected from everything else.

 

How can the motor come out alone? It is frozen and cannot be rotated so I cannot get to all the bolts that connect the flywheel to the TC.

 

Pull it with the torque converter attached. You will need extra room to do this so the core support may need to come out. Make sure upon installation you make sure to replace the front pump seal on the transmission and make certain the input shaft is seated fully. Also make sure the torque converter is fully seated before attempting to install the engine.

 

Pull the motor and transmission as a unit. You're much less likely to screw things up, if you pull the transmission, and the torque converter stays on the flexplate, if you've got it out of the vehicle.

 

What happened to freeze it up?
perhaps it killed a head gasket and a cylinder is full of coolant. Pull all the plugs and see if it turns over. Careful, if it does, it will soak everything in the vicinity of that cylinder lol.

 

It’s a mystery at this point. It was running fine. I drive this truck a few times a month at most. Last October I went to start it and all I got was a clunk. The bendix engaged the flywheel but would not turn over the engine. I thought I had a bad ground. The truck sat most of the winter. I replaced the negative and positive battery cables a few weeks ago. Still the same. I have removed all the spark plugs, removed the belt, put it in neutral and tried to turn it over with a breaker bark. Frozen solid! It has plenty of oil and coolant. Neither looks bad. It makes no sense.

 

If I may offer,

I’d pull the heads and see what you’re up against first before pulling the engine. Sounds like it might just be seized from sitting? Can’t say why, but if it were seized from sitting (rusty cylinder walls), it might be worth it to give this a try. Either way, on the stand or in the truck, you’ll probably be pulling the heads anyway…

I’ve had good luck with diesel/fuel oil mixes in the past, MMO imho is good stuff too, Id use a mix of the two. It’s taken me a few days of pouring diesel in, letting it sit, and tapping each piston with soft wood and a mallet. (I’ve read of people using Coke a cola, but I’ve never tried and don’t know anyone who has). I’ve also had good luck using Aerokroil, especially on stuck/siezed valves. Sometimes I haven’t tapped, but not overly aggressive either. I’ve been successful doing it that way. Once they start to move, I think I turned it just enough to get each piston to BDC one by one and used some scotchbrite and rags to scrub and clean out the cylinders, using heavy oil to scrub with, again mmo might work well for cleaning them up too.

Everyone has their favourite oil, but if it sits a lot, I’d run a good synthetic oil in it. It solved a lot of problems for me switching over to syn oil for equipment that sat around off season. I was constantly dealing with seized and stuck valves., etc etc. After switching and running synthetic, no issues. I’ve also run mmo in crank cases to help free up sticky valves, lifters, clean things up, etc.

Good luck with it.

 

I would disconnect the battery, then pull the starter to see its jammed on the flexplate. If this the case you should be able to bar the motor over now.
Also you reference both flexplate and flywheel.. Might want to clarify which.

 

Correct. Flexplate. Not flywheel. My mistake. I pulled the starter. I will take the heads off tonight and see what I find

 

Here ya go. Found the problem. Full of coolant.

 

Boy I would guess so! Now gotta figure out why on the teardown. Good luck!

 

Now I have to decide what to replace it with.

 

By the way the springs look in the picture, both valves are closed. Are you sure the coolant in the port isnt from pulling the manifold off of the engine? If the valve is closed, there shouldn't be any in the cylinder, just sitting on the back side of the valve.
i would use a rag and soak that up, and then see if the valve is closed.

 

That’s what I am thinking. I’m going to try and get all the fluid out before I pull the head.