97 Dakota Wont start

[fish2222]

Ok, heres the deal. This is my neighbors truck. Its an ex-cab with the 5.2L V8 in it. He was driving it home the other day, when all of a sudden, he said it just lost power. He could only go about 5 -10 mph with the throttle wide open. He called his wife and parked it, came back this morning and tried to start it, but it wouldnt start at all. It would spit and sputter every once in a while, but thats it. He checked it for spark, seems ok. We pulled the fuel line loose from the fuel rail, turned the key, and it filled a coffee cup in two key cycles. He held his finger over the end, and it blew his finger off, so we think it has good pressure. I scanned the sensors, couldnt find any that werent working while it was cranking. My question is, do these engines have problems with timing chains? Is there an easy was to check it out? I was gonna check the timing with a timing light, looked for crank timing marks, but cant find any. This truck does have 130k on it. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks!

[fredjacksonsan]

With that many miles, it might have a timing chain issue, but might pay to see if it's been tuned - spark plugs, cap, rotor, etc recently. If not do that first.

And have to state the obvious: is there gas in the tank?

A timing chain usually doesn't happen suddenly, unless it breaks which would be unusual. The sudden thing was what brought the gas to mind. Might also want to put some gas treatment in there too.

[fish2222]

Well, my neighbor put in new plugs and it started right up and ran... So, he went out and drove it. About 2 miles away, it died again. So, he put a new cap and rotor on it. Now, it seems to go even longer, but still dies at some point. He drive back and forth 12 miles to work, and some days it will make it back and forth, and other days it wont. It always will start back up after it cools off, and it always dies after its up to running temp. I have decided it cant be the fuel pump, just fort the simple fact that it should just die all the time, and not when it feels like it. I think it could be the coil pack, but what do you guys think?