How do you unlock a 350 engine that locked up because of no oil?

Answer 1

If the engine has been run without oil the bearings have probably seized to the crankshaft, in which case, the ONLY option is a rebuild, including either a new crankshaft or turning/polishing the old crankshaft (if you're lucky).

Running without oil will destroy any engine. You MAY be able to free it up enough to get the torque converter off if you drop the pan and loosen all of the bearing caps, but you may need to pull the engine AND the transmission together.

Good luck.

BTW, the torque converter will pull straight out if you have enough room to slide the engine forward.

If the engine does free up, don't try to run it once it's seized up.

Another Answer:set engine up right and soak the cylinder in diesel the oil base fuel will free the rings enough to move the pistons. Answer

Hi

I am no mechanic but I used these two method to free a 1955 Dodge v-8 that was stuck.

I removed all the plugs and poured diesel and kerosene in to the cylinders and let it set. I removed the plug from the oil pan and kept adding the mixture until after a day or so the mixture starting weeping out the oil pan drain. Also I took a breaker bar and tried turning the engine over by hand every couple of hours.

Pour in the mixture, rock the engine by hand, add more , rock let rest.

After two days of this it spun freely.

Other idea.

If it has a manual transmission you can lube all the cylinders and put in high gear, get it rolling at a slow speed and pop the clutch.

Others will have different ideas, like I said I am a hack, but these two things worked for me in the past.

Lastly Google or ask.com "how to free a seized engine" there is a lot of info about people freeing old tractor engines.

Above method should work, but is usually not a long-term solution in modern engines. Engine speeds today are much higher than old tractors and trucks. If you get it freed up you could easily spin a rod bearing or even a main bearing. Best solution is to disassemble the engine completely and do an overhaul.

Another Perspective:If the rings are rusted to the cylinder walls, the trick with the kerosene will sometimes work. That's often a good method to use with "old tractor engines" or other engines that are seized because they have just sat around for years, but if the engine is run without oil, the Babbitt on the bearings typically melts from the friction heat, and when the engine is turned off, the Babbitt bonds to the crankshaft. You're probably not getting that free without some dis-assembly.