could it be the timing chain or timing belt? 1994 SIERRA

[LOUD-ASS-SIERRA]

hey guys, trucks a little slow and sluggish.. 1994 sierra 5.7L v8 with 188,XXX miles. shifts great just has no get up and go and other little issues around that. without needing to swap motors (it was replaced around 33,000 miles), could it be the timing chain or timing belt? i am not sure which my truck has but ive heard that will help a lot. what exactly does this timing chain do and would it be smart replacing it? will it help my sluggish truck? ive reved it outside under the hood with my finger on the throttle and it does catch a little late so i think this could be my problem. its not a major problem at all but it does take some effort getting up to speed or after a complete stop at a stop sign. any idea how on much they cost? could i do it myself or take it in to a dealer? any help would be nice. Thanks

[strmn94]

well to be sure if it is the timing chain and sprokets, you need to remove the cap off the distributor, and put a socket on the bolt on the end of the crank at the harmonic balancer.
have a friend or someone watch the rotor, turn the crank one way til the rotor starts to move, then rotate the crank the other way til it starts the rotor to move the other way. now if the chain is loose, you will have alot of movement from one way to the next to make the rotor move. if it does, then the problem is the timing chain. if there is no movement from one way to the other way of the crank in the rotor, what i mean the rotor starts to move imediatly, then you might have a plugged catalytic converter.

[LOUD-ASS-SIERRA]

Would a plugged cat affect horsepower and how much its letting me get up and go? how do you think it would run if i took it off and replaced it w/ a high flow cat? i dont want to run it w/ no cat like urs so i'd replace it. but lets just say i swapped it out for a new cat, how much better do you think it would run. like i said before, it shifts like a charm yet its getting to the shifting part whats the trouble. it runs great for what is installed so something is obviously slowing her down. nothing mechanically wrong, just slow and sluggish. I think i will try to swap it out before i mess w/ timing. How can you tell if it is plugged? I mean of course a stock cat from '94 is rusted out but how else can i tell. Lets say on a scale from one to ten, how much do you think by replacing the cat it would help and how exactly does a plugged up cat affect my "get up and go" ability?

[Tsimms1964]

it would help a ton. I had to replace mine after getting ahold of some really bad gas the replacing the fuel pump and filter. I figured out it was the cat by drilling a small hole in front of the cat in the pipe. I left it small enought to be welded closed , but large enough to let some exhaust flow. helped considerablly. then I replaced the Cat and closed the hole and took care of the problem.