I have an 87 22re I'm doing full rebuild, I got the motor in pieces, the only thing that was in the block was the crank, so I don't kno what connecting rod went to which cylinder, with that being said, I polished the crank rolled in new mains, an rod bearings, plastiguage it all and mains and rods were perfect, I honed the block before I put the crank in, cleaned it a bunch of times, got the pistons in and started to put the timing together and broke a bolt in the timing cover, at the time I could turn the motor over it was very hard, now I can't turn it over at all and it's been about 2 months since I last messed with it due to work, I put assembly lube on journal side of bearings, an also soaked the pistons in motor oil before I put them in, can't get the motor to budge an I don't even have the head on yet, I checked piston rings with feeler gauge in middle stroke and the gap was perfect as well, need help asap please don't really want to take the pistons back out if I don't have to

 

My first thought do you have the timing cover back on??

If the engine spun free before reinstalling the cover perhaps you forgot something or the timing chain is wedged not allowing things to turn

Oil pump drive gear installed back wards will stop things from moving.

Also anything left out that allows the crank pulley to be pushed in to far.

I would look real careful in that area before pulling things apart

 

I soaked the pistons in motor oil be for installing, each piston I put in was getting harder and harder to turn over, when I first installed the pistons I could hardly turn it over, now it sat for nearly 2 months and now wont turn over at all

 

Ok just what type of leverage are you using to turn it over ??

You have a new tight engine .

How tight was just the crank with the main Bearings torqued to turn over??

Kroil or PB Blaster to soak the cylinders maybe the rings rusted to the cylinder walls

 

The crank was easy to turn over with no pistons

 

Pour a little ATF down each cylinder and let it soak for a day or 2. Then put a ratchet on the crank bolt and try and rotate the engine. If it wont spin at all I would look at the timing cover setup. Also is the head on? If so are you a 1000% percent sure you got the timing chain cam and crank on the correct marks during install at #1 TDC compression? Is it possible your cam is out of time and your binding on a valve?