Timing chain? or something else? 93 supreme

[themindbender]

Hey, my fiance was driving home and left me a message that she heard a noise under the hood. Soon after, she left me a message that she was on the road stranded. The engine will turn over but nothing moves. The pulleys, belt(obviously), anything. I tested the aldl and I received a 35 code. According to about.com there is no 35 code for a 93 olds cutlass supreme. Any ideas?

[caddyman379]

Wait what? Your saying when the engines cranking, the pulleys dont spin with it? If thats the case, then it certainly sounds like a timing chain. But they typically dont break, they strech and the car performs badly. It's possible but not likely it skipped time. Open the oil cap on the valve cover, look in with the engine cranking, are the valves moving?

There is a code 35, it will set when the throttle speed is 300 rpm above or below the correct idle speed for 4 seconds. Replace the IAC. Thats what my haynes says. You can try to remove it and clean it with throttle body cleaner.

You didn't mention the engine or the mileage, that would be very helpful.

Doubtful this is a timing issue, what does she describe the noise as? metallic clang? was she accelerating decel or cruising?

[Ian Szgatti]

This doesn't sound good. But somebody must be confused about the whole pulleys not turning thing, since the crankshaft balancer is turning the visible belts.

[themindbender]

sorry, let me clarify. 1993 Olds Cutlass Supreme FWD 3.1l. I have looked at the car and nothing is turning.

[Ian Szgatti]

So then your starter engages the flywheel, turns the flywheel, yet the crankshaft pulley is not turning at all? definately need to understand the condition here... it's not that i am confused about this concept, it's that I like to know with 100% clarity what is happening.
Have you looked in the oil filler cap as well to see if the valve train is operating? With the absence of these two actions it seems concieveable that you have major damage to the crankshaft... I personally havent see it ahppen where a crankshaft will break into two pieces, but it could happen i guess. How else would you get a turning flywheel with no transfer of rotation to the crankshaft pulley or valve train gear??

[caddyman379]

well, the car certainly wont start if the crank pulley isnt moving. The crankshaft position sensor relies on its rotation to operate, and if it doesn't spin, you'll get no spark and im not sure, but probably no fuel injector action.

The sound she heard needs to be described better. This is pretty major in anycase, your looking at possibly a timing chain, and more likely a damaged crank. It is possible that the harmonic balancer is ****** up. But def see if the valves are opening and closing. That would rule out the timing chain breaking.

Either way you need to see what's going on here. If its the crank, it may be time to junk the car. Or get a rebuilt engine

[themindbender]

Thank you everyone. Once I had her turn the engine over so I could see what was going on it was very simple. I could only see the top pulley, the alternator. The engine was cranking but the alt. was frozen. Since that was all I could see I thought only the crank was moving. About $100 and 30 mins later problem solved. Sorry it took so long to respond, now I have another issue to handle on this car.