Jamie79SC

You may have read the post from my son earlier today. Yes the extender for the compression test hose got left in the #1 head (little blabbermouth - see if I let him know my passwords in future;-). No big deal- I just whittled a square ended hardwood dowel, pressed it into the extender and twisted it out. No muss no fuss.

Well, since I had taken the 123 intake valve cover off to get a better reach at the lost tool, I decided to skip the pre-valve adjustment compression check, and went straight to draining the oil, removing the rest of the valve covers and the distributor cap. After about 4 engine cooling, hours I went to turn the engine over by hand to TDC for cyl 1 – and lo and behold, it would barely budge. I thought - engine in gear? -nope - loose belt? - no, not really – something in the valve train?, something impinging on the rotor? I can’t see anything wrong along those lines. I had my son bump the starter and watched the crank, fan, and rotor all moved as one would expect. When I helped the belt along with my hand (along with the pulley wrench) I felt what can only be described as a grinding.

The rest of the details:
- Car 79SC 120k miles
- Up to now the engine has been running flawlessly.
- The car has Cararra tensioners (all the oil lines look fine)
- There are no plugs, oil or valve covers in/on the car at the moment
What could this be? Someone tell me I forgot something dumb, otherwise I’m having it taken to the shop on Monday.