96 vortec 454 timing question

[64swb]

Ok to start this off, a few weeks ago I was pulling my trailer and my truck started backfireing, lost power and died. Towed it home and found the distributor had striped half the teeth off. I checked the cam gear with above scope and it looked ok so I replaced the distributor and got it running but it’s not running right. I set the cam retard at 0 degrees with my scan tool. It runs ok but kind of chuggy and sounds odd at the exhaust pipe. I’m thinking I may have a plug wire or 2 wrong. Or possibly the distributor is 180 degrees out. My question is weather or not I would be able to achieve 0 degrees of timing if the distributor was 180 degrees off? The truck is a 96 3500 with the 7.4 and a 5 speed.
Thanks and have a good night!
-Chris

[95 S_Trucker]

It would not run if it was 180 out. Double check all your plug wires. Having 2 mixed up can cause it to sound really bad.

[Mr_Rich]

I'd start seriously worrying about the cam gear if the dist. gear was that chewed up. A new cam gear might not be the "band-aid" to fix this problem.

[64swb]

Thanks for the replies guys, i did have 2 wires swapped on the passenger side bank. Runs like a top now. Mr_Rich, I am slightly worried about the cam gear itself but I did run a bore scope down and had a buddy spin the motor over and the cam gear looked fine. The distributor gears were worn paper thin on the ones that were still left. The teeth getting wore thin seems to be a fairly common vortec problem, happened on my wife’s suburban and my mother’s Yukon. Caught those before they failed, but this truck I just recently got and have no idea how long it had the po1345 code for before I got it. If it does fail quickly it’ll get a zz502 cam.
-Chris

[Mr_Rich]

It sounds like you were as careful as possible. Glad you have it running. I have a Vortec 7.4L myself that I need to get running. I've been working on all the peripheral stuff as time and money allows on this truck. I'm glad I took care of my '89 and I appreciate it more and more vs. this newer truck that was abused.

[64swb]

I hear you on the truck that was taken care of vs the abused truck. The truck in my avatar was (regrettably) sold when I bought my house. It was a ‘92 that I got from the second owner with 74k on the clock and still had the original window sticker. Garage kept till I had it. The only thing I don’t miss about that truck vs the vortec truck I have now is the lack of power. This vortec truck I have now with double the miles on it feels like a drag car compared to the tbi 454.
-Chris