hey guys so i just changed the timing chain on my ranger while i had the engine sitting on the engine stand and now when i start it has a massive lack of power and a strange knocking sound and it’s hard to start and overall runs like garbage and i know the dots are lined up but could this be caused by not having my #1 piston at tdc of the compression stroke ? i dont know what stroke i was on when i installed the timing chain but i figured if the dots are lined up it should be ok and because its a keyed shaft or maybe i lined the timing dots up with it at 12 ish degrees ? and i’ve also noticed my 4x4 isn’t really working either any ideas ?

 

As long as the dots were the correct dots and crank dot was at 12:00 and cam dot was at 12:00 OR 6:00 the timing is correct

There can be "makers" marks on some cam gears, round stamp but can be mistaken for a dot

Test compression on a few cylinders, expected is 150+psi
Under 120psi, on all, means crank/cam timing is off

What else was repair while engine was out?
The reason for removing the engine

 

[QUOTE. i took out the engine because i wanted to do the rear main seal and head gaskets and i cleaned up and painted the engine and also so i could do the timing chain and water pump easy

 

If you did the heads I would test compression in all cylinders

 

i tried to but my compression tester won’t thread in but another thing i noticed beside the knocking sound and the horrible running is that when i pulled the plugs they where black and the plugs where new and the upper intake is black infront of the throttle plate