98 venture problem PO300 code please help

[skipcheck58]

driving home the other day the van quit, it was snowing and acted like it like the engine got wet,the engined turned over very hard like a weak starter and backfired some, it would run but not very well, knocking and backfiring, check out battery ,ok, check out starter,ok, now it won,t start at all and turns over very hard,reads PO300 code,i put in new head and intake gaskets, new oem plugs about 3 month ago.it has 140000 miles and has always ran great .engine is a 3.4 any ideas out there ,, thanks skip

[lesterl]

300 is a random missfire. Could be a bad ICM, could be a bad 7x crank sensor, this one is located on the cab side of the block, crawl up under and it is between the transaxle and block near the exhaust.

I would start by getting the module tested, I think the 7x (2 wire) crank sensor is around $10 or so.

Make shure all your battery cables and connections are good, low system voltage will do that also.

Good luck man.

[skipcheck58]

i got the starter off ,i tryed to turn engine over at the flywheel gear, it is very tight,looks like some thing inside the motor is wrong

[lesterl]

Pull all of the plugs and see if it turns over easier, if you have been trying to crank on it, the cylinders could be full of fuel, might also check the oil level and smell it for gas.