Frozen engine 560 sel, how to free?
 

Theres a nice 1986 560 sel in my area for sale. Its engine is frozen. I can pick it up for very cheap. Im assuming that the owners ran it out of oil. I am mechanically able to do many things but dont want a gigantic project.
can this engine be freed? any tips how?

If this fails i have a 300 Turbo diesel with a crappy body . Is it possible to swap engines with out too much modification?

Dynamite...C4...who knows? You REALLY wanna mess with an expensive rebuild...replacing the motor is bad enough....but unknown siezure...hmmmm?

Have a look along the sides of the block...see if there is any recent ventilation holes.:eek:

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eh thats a risky situation. if its been seized its probabaly no good anymore, these blocks have a coating on the walls and once thats been ruined theres no recovering from it. assuming you could free it up, a compression test would more than likely reveal unfavorable results.
try finding a used engine to stick in it or like you said put the diesel in it. It can be done, but you may need some specific parts off an SD or SDL to make everything fit right. there's another member here who did one of these conversions already so maybe they would be able to help you with questions.

Thaw it out...;)

If the car is cosmetically nice, has no rust, and is like $500, I'd pick it up and work on the engine. But I can do a huge DIY project like that myself. I'd probably replace the engine though, but it'd be fun to take the old one apart and see how it detonated ;)

You're looking at at least new bearings and rings if it ran out of oil and froze. Probably new cams, cam towers, rocker arms as well. Depending what happened when it froze (freeze, or actual "Blow up"), you may need new rods, crank, pistons, and a rebore. I'd be surprised if it didn't NEED a rebore as is, but you could quite possibly get it to run without one - just not too well.

Before you start to put a diesel engine in the car, ensure that you can get it registered. Unless your intention is to drive it only off-road, this will be necessary.

Here in IL, the car would have to be twenty-five years old for this to be possible. Check with your local DMV.

Broken timing chains can cause a lock-up - sometimes, this can be as "minor" (minor being replacing a head, not cheap even if you can DIY, the gaskets alone run into some money) as replacing one head (or getting a valve replacement on that head). OTOH, sometimes this can be a total disaster. It's a crapshoot without looking under the cam covers for at least a clue. If it was caused by oil starvation, the long block is very likely not worth repairing, period.

Thanks for the info guys. seems like too much of a project. If anyone wants it its on craigslist for 700, probably could get five for it cause its been there a while.

A good used engine can be had for about $1000.00. That would be the only way I would apprach this.

John Roncallo