Engine cranks rough and wont start

[Steven94]

94 with 3.0. So over the last few days my runner has been loosing coolant. I checked it the other say and it was low, so I filled it up and by the next day it was low again. With out looking at it my mechanic told me it could be a blown head gasket. The truck started and drove fine other than having a bit of a rougher idle. I even drove it last night. When I went to start her up this morning it cranked real rough and wouldn't start. It makes a load vibrating/grinding sound.

I don't think this is from a blown head gasket, but I am not sure. Any ideas?

 

[KidVermicious]

If you overheated it due to low coolant you could have done enough damage that it doesn't want to turn over.

First make sure your battery is charged and the starter is getting a solid 12 volts. Then pull the spark plugs, put a breaker bar on the front crankshaft bolt, and see how easy it is to rotate the motor clockwise. It should be relatively easy with the plugs out, and it should rotate smooth. If you feel it catching or binding or it just takes a serious grunt to get it to budge, that's trouble.

 

[Steven94]

Shouldn't I have seen some other sign if it was overheating? I have always heard of cars smoking and the engine shutting down if it overheated. I filled my radiator last night before returning home and only drove for maybe 30 min. That was the only driving I did that day. Temp gauge was riding just at half way, though it usually sits just below half when warmed up.

 

[KidVermicious]

I'm just spitballing. Whether you overheated or not, if you have grinding and nastiness when you try to turn the motor over, something is drastically wrong. If the crank won't spin manually, then you've found your problem. If it does spin easy, then maybe a stripped starter?

Doesn't do a lot of good to sit and worry about what caused your problem when you don't even know what the problem is yet. Go get dirty.

 

[Border4Runner]

Steven...did you ever figure out what it was?

 

[Steven94]

Steven...did you ever figure out what it was?

Negative. I know a little about engines, but not a whole lot. So I don't really want to mess with it to much by my self. A good friend of mine is a mechanic, so I will have him take a look at it soon. Over the last couple weeks he has been rebuilding his Porsche 944 that has been sitting around for three years and he is really close to having it running. I was going to wait till he got it running before I asked him to head over here.

 

[Steven94]

My friend took a look at it today. The problem is that the blown head gasket was letting coolant leak into the cylinders. Will be ordering a head gasket kit as well as a timing belt kit because it is time.

I also found this big crack in my intake hose.