Please help

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Originally Posted by Mile High VX

Is there an way to determine this?

Could you pull the plugs and the timing belt and see if the crank can be turned with a breaker bar?

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Yes.

There is no way to be absolutely sure without pulling the motor out and checking the bottom end.
The camshaft or crankshaft may have seized at the time, but with the motor cold may still turn over. However the damage will have been done.
Jake may have been lucky, but most of the low oil failures on these engines seize #1 rod bearing.

PK

Just in my case. Yes the cams seized (actually the drive gear for the cams seized, locking the cams). But when I tore it apart the main & rod bearings (2 total) were just starting to show signs of starvation. I was able to have the crank polished & saved it. No way would I have wanted to put it together without polishing the crank & new bearings. BUT, the reason the engine (please don't call it a MOTOR) was using oil was the oil rings were all carboned up in the ring lands & just letting the oil go right past them & into the compression rings. So if you just rebuild the top end the same oil consumption will still be going on. I bored my block, new oversized pistons, drilled the extra holes in the new piston ring lands & put her back together with new heads. I was actually able to reuse the cam shafts. Like I said they didn't seize, just the intermediate gears.