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What makes you think you have hydraulic lock. Rather than checking the starter, battery cables and perhaps VATS. If you did have hydraulic lock, the starter would engage and try to turn making some sort of engaging or clicking sound.
If you hear nothing and the dash lights look normal, start with the basic first on the electrical as mentioned.
You can always manually turn the engine over with a breaker bar and socket (gently) to see in fact if it will turn easily. I would think you would smell a fuel smell if you had a hydraulic lock. If the FPR is bad you can pull off the vaccum line and see if it is wet or leaking.
Seems to be a lot of this going on right now. Same as I said to someone else - if the security light is staying on its is VATS, Clean the pellet on the key and wait a few minutes before trying again.
Guys - posted this form my brother-in-law
below is his explanation...any thoughts???
When this first happened, I went to start the car and it started right up. It ran very rough for a few seconds and died. I went to restart it and there was a violent jerk of the engine and a loud pop. i tried it again and the same thing. It seemed the engine was in a bind and would not turn over. I had it towed and a shop here replaced the starter and said the engine was seized up and would not allow the starter to turn. Also, the gas tank had 2 bars on the gauge and after the first start read empty. The shop said the manifold was full of gas and when I pulled the dip stick you could really smell gas. The engine would not even turn manually.
It must have a bad fuel pressure regulator or stuck open injectors, you need to figure out what leaking down. First change the oil & filter, remove the spark plugs, disable the entire ignition system by unplugging the red coil wire, let air out for awhile. Hook a fuel pressure gauge up to it & cycle the key.
Does it hold pressure? If not, pull the vacuum hose on the regulator & retest & watch the regulator for fuel to squirt out. If not there then its probably an injector stuck open.
When you figure out the fuel problem, then you can crank it over alittle, squirt some oil in each plug hole soon afterwards. Then install the plugs & hook up coil, ect.
Pretty easy to determine if the cylinders are locked due to fuel...pull the plugs. If gas pours out the plug holes, there's your answer.
Can also drain the oil. If it's full of fuel....another hint.
To check the fuel pressure regulator, pull the vacuum line off the regulator at the rear (driver's side) of the intake. If fuel is in the vacuum line....bad regulator.
Takes 2 minutes of effort unbolt and lift the fuel rail up (injectors attached) on an LT1/4. If an injector is stuck open, when they turn the key to "run", the fuel pump will run for 2 seconds and fuel will spray out of the bad injector. If no fuel sprays out, the injectors are fine.