Expert: Dick Benjamin - 11/20/2008

Question
I have a 1956 Cadillac Sedan Deville Series 62.  We noticed some leaking from the radiator and replaced hoses.  We never noticed a large spill.  Driving on the freeway the engine seized (loud noise, lost power).  We threw it into neutral and drifted to the side.  It appeared to be out of water.  The odd thing is the oil dipstick is frozen - it cannot be pulled out (even now that the car has been sitting for a few weeks).  The block does not appear to be cracked.  The engine tries to turn over when we try to start it - similar to a dead battery..........Any ideas??

Answer
I can't really offer any brilliant thoughts about this.  The only way I can think of the dipstick sticking in the tube is if there was a fire in the oil pan due to severe overheating - this could have caused enough sludge and ash buildup to stick things up pretty bad.  You would have seen smoke coming out of the air breather (oil fill cap) and the paint on the oil pan would be scorched.

Regardless of what you can see from the outside of the engine, you need to pull the heads and inspect to see what damage happened at the top of the engine, and I would also drop the pan to inspect down there.   I think you are most likely in for a complete engine rebuild, and you can only hope that the block isn't seriously damaged.

I am familiar with two instances of this same set of circumstances - one was a small block Chevy - and it did have an oil pan fire.  That block was savable but a complete rebuild was neccesary.  The other car was a 4 cylinder Volvo of the mid 70s - its engine was basically a pile of scrap metal - the engine had to be replaced with another one.

Good luck, I think you're going to need it with this one!

Dick