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I just took charge of a Tartan 30 with a late model A4 auxiliary. When I first inspected her, the owner had just started the engine and then it quit, after quite a while of trying to start her after that, he gave up. 4 weeks later I have her hauled and I'm trying to winterize the engine when I discover that she won't even turn over. The starter works (I pulled the starter and it works just fine) but I could not move the fly wheel by hand. I removed the spark plugs and while there was a fair amount of gunk in there they were not flooded and the mixture smelled like gas. When I checked the oil it was clear, a bit dirty but no signs of water intrusion. Since I could not get the engine to turn over I got the anti-freeze through using a gravity funnel from the top of the block. What the heck happened?
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Whenever an engine seizes, it's almost always the case that water has entered into one or more combustion chambers and corroded the aluminum pistons, which causes them to stick in the bores.
With your starter removed, you can take a large common screwdriver and attempt to pry between the teeth of the starter ring and the lower edge of the starter opening in the flywheel housing. Since you're not seeing any gross evidence of water intrusion, we can hope that the engine isn't too profoundly seized and you'll be able to free it up in this manner.
If you can't free up the engine using the above method, you will unfortunately have little choice but to remove it for disassembly.
Don -
Hi Don, I tried to warm up the engine with a space heater and then turn the starter ring with a screwdriver to no avail. I'm currently figuring out a strategy for pulling the engine from a T30 in winter... any hints?Comment
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I'm attaching a generic checklist we prepared some time ago to assist in removing an Atomic 4. Hopefully it will help you at least get started.
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