I went to Craig's place Friday to see if I could help him out with his timing belt problem. The crank is very hard to turn with a breaker bar. At times it won't turn at all. We took the belt off to see if the valves were hitting the pistons, but they weren't. With the belt off and the cams turning easily, the crank is still a pain to turn. As a comparison, we tried my car, which is the same type of car(LX) , the crank turns easy.
Also, when we're trying to use the starter to turn the engine over, the battery cables get hot quickly. I talked to a Mazda service guy, he seems to think the engine is "gunked" up, it' is dirty, but I don't know if I buy that explanation.
HELP!!

 

how was it running before all this? have you tried removing the spark plugs? - that may make it easier to turn (*clockwise* as i'm assuming you know )....
the engine is non-interference so there should be nothing to worry about bent valves. i don't see why the oil would be the problem, but....you could always drain it and change it while you're at it....

 

I had the spark plugs out, and could see in the cylinders. I suspect he has an oil burning problem, as the crap on the tops of the pistons looked wet. Hey, you think it's hydro locked??