Alright Long time lurker, with a question about my Dakota. 178000 miles, Automatic, 4X4. Not that any of this matters but here is the Meat and Potatoes of the problem. I changed the Timing chain about 20,000 Miles ago and everything has been fine until recently. When I go to start it, it turns over a few times and the engine stops abruptly like it hydrolocks or pre ignites. It stops so fast that the water pump squeeks on the serpentine. When the coil wire is unplugged, it cranks freely. It has newer plug wires, Dist Cap, and Rotor. Usually after the first time of attempting to start it will start and run fine. Once the engine is hot it starts OK unless you let it sit for 5 minutes or so. It runs great for a 178000 mile engine, but this is really aggrevating the heck out ofme. Any ideas?I have adjusted the timing from0 to 10deg before tdc thinking maybe if I got closer to 0 it would help the situation (Pre Ignition?) This didnot help the situation. Any suggestions guys.....

I seem to be a magnet for problems that are unique.tell me that this is not unique and it is an easy fix

 

Any ideas !!! this one has me stumped

 

After re reading my original post, I sounds like I adjusted the timing from 0 to 10 degrees, when what i really did was attempted different settings between 10 and 0. 10 being the spec and 0 being less likely to have a pre ignition situation.

Am I just talking out my butt, or would this make sense to try, if it was pre ignition at low rpm, IE starting.