I have a 1996 dodge dakota, My timing chain stretched and skipped a tooth. my mechanic told me that now my timing is dead on, however it doesnt have as much power as it did before and it cant rev passed 4k rpms. When it skipped on the sprockets it wouldnt start but would just backfire. its not backfiring now, runs smooth but loss of power. any ideas?

 

From the experience I have had in the past if the timing is off by one tooth the engine will still run but will run like crap. If the timing jumped at a higher rpm then there is a possibility that it could have warped pushrods or valves. The first thing i would do is check the order of the plug wires and make sure there correct and maybe pull a few plugs and check or replace them.

 

And im assuming that the only way to verify that would be to take the pulleys water pump and timing cover?

 

No you should be able to just use a timing light to check it but the timing is not adjustable. Yiu can also pull the #1 cylinder plug and bring that cylinder to top dead center on its compression stroke then pull the distributor cap and see if the rotor is pointing to the #1 cylinder. If it is then the timing is correct. And for finding out if the valves and/or pushrods are warped you can do a compression test on each cylinder. If your dropping compression on any of the cylinders then there is a good chance you have a warped valve and/or pushrod.