Hi! This is my first time posting, not the first time reading, awesome forum.
I bought a 1985 coupe a year ago. Beautiful. Passed smog, not a problem.
Yesterday I drove it in the morning, as usual, parked it at work. Then when heading to lunch. Turned the key, cranked for about 4 seconds, nothing.
Cranked it again, loud noise and it stopped.
Then cranked it again and it turned a little bit more and stopped again.
Volts read 11.8 so I charged the battery, cranked it again, same thing. Horrible. Don't ask me why I tried to crank it so many times. It was stupid of me.
Decided to turn it by hand with a brench, so I removed the intake tube with the maf, lots of FUEL, cylinders filled with fuel probably, so it hydrolocked.
I'm panicking.
So I remove spark plugs, at least 3 or 4 cylinders have some fuel in them. Poured some oil in all the cylinders, and turned the engine with the wrench.
Did at least 6 full revolutions, the resistance was stable through all of them, so nothing seams stuck. I dont know how much resistance should the l98 have without spark plugs tho, I used like a wrench between 10 an 15 inch long, and it wasnt super easy, nor hard, could have continue without trouble.
The vacuum line to the FPR (my first bet) is dry. Injectors? can leaky or even stuck open injectors, fill up the intake manifolds and get to the TB?
The good: engine is not stuck (dont know if anything is bent tho, hard to tell now)
The bad: I think there is oil in the coolant. So probably broke the head gasket after cranking it so much??

Maybe i got fucked and bought a bad car (tho it didnt smoke and the smog went really well, and the car looks good under the hood and outside)
I dont know what else apart from the FPR can put so much gas in the intake, can you help me?

Oil pressure was really good since I bought it, always checked that, and temperature. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Hope you can help me diagnose this, the car is parked in my job's parking lot, no light at night, this is really frustrating.

Thanks!

 

IMO, It's a good sign that you could crank it with a wrench.
When setting valve lash on my '88 the resistance to manual cranking the engine got stronger as more of the valve train came into play. Near the end it was pretty hard even with a breaker bar on the crank bolt.

Was there fuel in the intake as well as in several cylinders?

Check motor oil for water as well as coolant for oil. Not sure if a pressure check on the radiator would show up a blown head gasket.

Lets see what others have to add.

 

Yes, there was fuel in the throttle body and tubing where the maf is.
And there was fuel in at least 3 cylinders (probably the ones with open admission valves?)

 

If you got Multec injectors get rid of those POS and replace with some Bosch.

 

Are there any other places fuel can come fill the intake from? I can only think injectors an fpr.

 

I can't imagine how fuel got up into the plenum save for maybe an intake valve open with the cylinder loaded up and pumping it back up through an intake runner.

 

Makes me think the ECU went bad and held open injectors. I can't imagine how fuel could get there.

 

But only 3 cylinders fillled with fuel, so thats weird also.

 

I bought my '90 cheap because one of the injectors stuck open after it had been sitting for a while. It hydrolocked and threw a rod, so count your blessings if it still turns over. I saved the block, but replaced most everything else. It's a runner now.

 

So the FPR was the problem, I'll change the oil and crank it without spark plugs, with distributor and injectors and fuel pump disabled, and hope for the best.
Im scared the head gasket or even a rod bent.
I did turn well, but thats not 100% sure right?