I am in the middle of doing a head gasket replacement on my 3vze and what I am trying to do is move the motor into TDC using the crankshaft bolt. I havent put the heads on yet but when I try to rotate the motor 4 of the pistons move freely while 2 of the other ones barely move. Is this normal?

 

How far have you turn the crank bolt? If the 2 pistons are at either TDC or TBC they will appear to not be moving. Really they are just in between the up stroke and the down stroke of the crank turn. If they are in the middle of the cylinder stroke.... well you might have other problems.

 

They look like they were on there way down and when I apply pressure they begin to move up slowly but I wasnt sure how hard it is to turn the motor without the heads on. Im putting some force into it but then it just kinda stops

 

You should be able to turn the motor by regular ratchet pressure. It's going to stop as soon as you quit applying force, there are a lot of moving parts that have a lot of surface friction i.e. 6 pistons with 3 rings, crank journals, front and rear main seals, oil pump, torque converter is it's an auto or front input shaft if it's a manual, so you're not going to just give it a spin like the big wheel on The Price Is Right.

 

Oh wow! Completely forgot it was still in 5th gear from when I was removing the bolt haha. There goes an hour of time wasted. Thanks for all the help though

 

It's nice when it is something simple.....sometimes too simple.

 

Yep, it's pretty tough to make the clutch slip by hand isn't it? Been there done that.