Hey guys, bit of a saga with this car.

A short while ago I was getting a boost leak and so removed the inlet manifold (isn't that a fun job?) then I fixed some stuff up, hopefully curing the leak before putting it back together. When I first got it back together and I turned the key it cranked twice, then stopped and has refused to ever since. I've spent a while hunting down potential wiring problems etc but to no avail, today came the 'breakthrough':


So I pulled the intercooler off again this morning (what a ball ache that is to do every time I want to get to something underneath) so I could get to the starter. It would appear that they either stopped putting an earth on Rev D's from the starter, or mine had been removed at some point. I started to undo the top bolt and found it was wobbling due to the bottom bolt being loose. Had a bit of a 'wtf' moment, but all became clear. So I removed the starter and hooked the wires up and turned the key. Nada. Hooked up an earth and voila, 'click, whirrrr' as the sprocket shot out and span up. Great news!



Turns out some previous eejit overtightened the bottom bolt and stripped all the threads in the block. Unsurprisingly I don't have a heli-coil kit here, fortunately there were two fat washers on the bolt, 1 sprung, so I removed that one and it gave the threads just enough to bite on inside the block. Not ideal, but a temporary solution that can be fixed properly in the future. Back up top, my new earth strap now goes to the starter and when I try to crank, the engine turned over, again about 2 cranks.



New problem (might have been the problem all along) it won't crank past a certain point. I've got a breaker bar and 22mm bolt on the crank pulley and tried to turn the engine over and it's got a VERY solid stop to it right now. I'm not pushing too hard for fear of damaging something, but what could it be? When I pulled the inlet manifold off I was VERY careful not to drop anything down the inlet ports - tissue went into them immediately (and came back out when I refitted the manifold). The only other option is that something very solid is stopping the flywheel spinning.



What do you guys think? Seems like something jamming a valve or the flywheel hitting something are the only options, but all I did over the time the car has been off the road is the inlet manifold etc, not touched the driveline/gearbox etc. Weird.

Thanks!