Bad day for working on Porsche - Help!

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.

Technically, you're not supposed to do this, but can you turn the engine backwards? The chain can get messed up if the engine turns backwards, but it sounds like you might have other problems. Turn it very slowly backwards...

Heck, let me ask: Are you turning it the right direction to adjust the valves? Clockwise is the way to go...

In general, if you haven't done this before, it can be a bit unnerving. Even if the belt is tight, the engine may or may not turn easily (even with the plugs out). The grinding noise (not sure what you mean by grinding) could be the sound of the pistons moving in the cylinders. If you haven't had any problems with the motor, I doubt that there is anything wrong - you haven't done anything, unless someone dropped something in the spark plug holes. You did say that the plugs were out - you can't really turn the SC motors without those plugs out.

Anyways, unless you are turning the motor backwards, everything sounds ok. Unplug the CD box and crank the engine - if it turns, you're fine. If it gets stuck - you're not. I doubt you'll have a problem...

-Wayne

Thanks Wayne,

Actually, I’ve done this dozens of times in my old VW days and once before on this car. Yes, I’m defiantly turning clockwise. I’m tempted to skip the valve adjustment, button things back up and see if it runs. On the other hand, something really feels wrong. I'd hate to break something...

maybe the starter is hanging in the ring gear.