Got it all back together, and now it won't run.

[jtehfreaks]

Hey everyone, I got my car all back together after getting the oil pan and rod bearings replaced (among other things), and when I try to start the car, it will fire up, but after a second or two it will immediately stop, with an unsettling sound that's metallic.

Is this a result of the rod bearings getting rid of the assembly lube or something else? I'm not sure what's going on here. Here's a video:
(Yes, there's about 6 quarts of oil in the engine)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtabXT1PejI

[jtehfreaks]

Some more information; when I hit the gas, it'll hold good at 3000 RPM, but below that the car starts to run rough and starts to shut down like the video; could this be a fuel pressure or DME related issue? I'm thinking about swapping out the DME temp sensor from some reading I've done, but I've yet to really run into a similar problem. Might just do the oil pressure sender too since my car is reading 1 bar before it even cranks.

[thomasryan]

I would drop the pan. it sounds tight.

did you match the numbered side of the connecting rods caps on their respective rods?

[jtehfreaks]

My father-in-law and I did them one rod at a time, though I didn't catch the numbers stamped on the sides of the rods. It wouldn't hurt to pull it all apart and double check; hard lesson learned if that's the case. If I do need to swap a rod cap around, is there any harm in reusing the nuts that are currently installed? They're the ones that came with the Glycol set I purchased from this site.

[thomasryan]

the nuts are single use....and of course you will need the shells. the shells are pretty soft so the crank should be ok.

rotate the motor after each shell to check.

[kdjones2000]

Sounds to me like you have a vacuum leak.

Turn the engine over by hand and see if it binds. Get a 15/16" socket or 24mm socket and try to turn the crank from the front. If you messed up the caps, it should be very hard to turn, beyond the simple compression resistance.

[jtehfreaks]

I went ahead and turned the engine by hand, and for the most part it's super easy to turn with barely any resistance. A couple times during the rotation there's a good deal more resistance, but I'm pretty sure it coincides with the compression (since it pops back" if I let go of the wrench during the turn), and I'm also guessing that if the rod caps were goofed there would be significant resistance throughout the entire rotation.

Perhaps I broke a vacuum line when I moved the engine a bit to get some more room to move my hands around the area?

EDIT:
Took out the spark plugs to be sure, and there's still resistance in part of the rotation. I can also hear a metallic sound coming from the crankcase during the resistance portion of the rotation, though I'm not sure if that's normal or not since I've never done this before. I'll post another video when my camera's battery gets a recharge, though I'm starting to think that I'll have to disassemble everything again.

[thomasryan]

it happens. I made my ex roommate spend 1600 in parts to resurrect his Scooby RS coupe that he nuked. everything leaked but the rear main....everything. driving on the blown head gasket took out the top of the radiator.

just fired it up and oil is pouring out the rear main. tapped it in just a little too far.

[jtehfreaks]

Hah, now I feel silly. The big hose coming from the MAF was just a tad loose; tightened it up and the car runs like normal. Of course, this whole deal has brought up a few things that I feel like looking into now, like the vacuum lines; might as well get after the coolant lines too. After I get an alignment first.

[kdjones2000]

You're welcome