[1shotcleaner]

hi hate to say it but im sort of lost at this iv only done 1-2 timing chains ever. iv done hundreds of belts, but not many chains. any way my tow suburban lost power on the trip home last week, so i riped the chane out as it had about 8-12 deg. of slop. i put in a summit dubble roler with 9 positions on the crank sprocket, i set it at 4deg. advanced. and well its a total pig. am i going the wrong way or what? the paper work that comes with it says that the marks are to adjust the cam timing,but im not sure thats what it realy meens if any one knows what im talking about can you help me thank you

[DoubleVision]

To advance the cam timing aides low end torque at the expense of top end power. Some timing chains offer 4 and 8 degrees advanced.
To retard the cam timing aides high RPM performance at the expense of low end torque. Some chain sets have 4 and 8 degrees retard.
You say it's a pig then I'm guessing you mean it doesn't have much power and drinks gas. There could be many other reasons for that.
Tell us what your combo is, and what is the spark timing set at.

[1shotcleaner]

what i need to know is. do the adjustments on the crank geer change the cam timing or the crank timing. i set the geer at 4 deg advanced. if it changes the cam timing than im lost because it should have low end, and dosent. but if it changes crank timing than 4 deg + is the wrong way and thats my problem. distributer is in the same position for the last 276,000 miles

[hpete]

It changes the cam timing relative to crankshaft rotation. It really sounds like the timing set wasn't the problem in the first place, but with that many miles it was a good idea to change it.

[F-BIRD'88]

Most all cams already have 4 deg advance built in.
So you didn't have to advance it further using the 4deg adv setting on the multi gear. The amount of advance or retard achieved on multi key tiing gears is a rough approx, not nessessarily 4deg at all.
you must degree in the cam and measure the actual .050" open close events.
Then adv/retard as nessessary, if nessessary.

You probabily retarded the cam.
Stick it back on the standard 0deg keyway. Next time you install a cam or change gears and want to mess with the cam timing get a degree wheel, dial indicator and piston stop and degree it.

Some of the Chinesium stuff is way off.

Then reset the ignition timing using a timing light.