So I'm in the midst of a head gasket replacement on my 1992.
I got the timing chain and guides swapped out, did the HG, put the head back on and torqued down, went to spin the engine a couple times to make sure everything was good and... no good. I can only rotate the crank to about 1:30 before coming up against significant resistance. I thought at first that something might be jammed in the timing chain, so I pulled the TC cover... it's all good down there.

So what could be going on? I was at TDC when I started, the timing marks all line up,... ? I have no ideas.

Anybody have anything for me before I pull the head again?

Haha... You're fighting the compression of the engine. Pull your spark plugs and it will turn much easier.

Nope... plugs not in.
Really does feel like a hard stop.

Maybe I shouldn't jump to conclusions... my apologies.

When you hit the resistance, are you able to turn past it or does it have an obvious stopping point?

Also, is this a 22re or a 3vz? I'm assuming that it's a 22re because you said timing chain and also said "head" not "heads".

The 22re is an interference engine. If your mechanical timing is far enough off, your pistons could slap the intake and exhaust valves. Make sure your timing is good. Put the crank at 0* TDC with the #1 piston up top. Then the little dot on the camshaft gear should be at about the 1145 position. If that's all good then your mechanical timing is set.

Aside from that, as long as you're not fighting compression, I cannot think of anything that would create resistance when turning the crank. Did you get some gunk in your cylinders when you took the head off? I would stick a light down the spark plug holes and see if you can see anything before you tear the head off again.

Ooops... coulda sworn I had 22re in the subject line. Yeah I was wondering about gunk too - thinking that some of the carb cleaner I used to clean the block surface got into the rings and was gunking stuff up. In keeping with that theory, when you turn the crank the other way, it's equally limited by the same feeling of resistance - so maybe the rings/pistons are a little stuck?

But I'm not nuts, right? Assuming that the cam knob is at 11:30 and the timing mark on the crank is at tdc, and the timing belt's bright links are at the timing marks... there's no way it could be a valve right?

I was thinking that maybe something fell into a cylinder when I put the head on - but that seems unlikely. I was pretty careful.

Did you visually inspect that the #1 piston was at TDC when you did your mechanical timing? I wouldn't pay too much attention to the bright link as they don't really do a lot for you during install. Just make sure that the crank is at 0* (#1 piston TDC), little dot on the crankshaft gear is at 1145 and the little slack that is in the timing chain during install is on the passenger side. You don't want any slack on the driver side of the chain during the install. But it's important to visually inspect that the #1 piston was at TDC during your install. If not, then all the stars will still line up but you'll have the issue that you're having.

I may be wrong but I would think that you would have to have a LOT of gunk in one or more of your cylinders to have the issue you're having. When you turn the engine (w/o spark plugs installed), the crank should turn freely with no resistance. To stop that no resistance turn has to be something significant.

SV asked earlier but I didn't see you say, is it a hard stop or is it squishy? Can you push through it?

Check your cam to crank timing.
regards