I was driving to the gas station a few weeks ago. I was very low on gas. Two blocks from the gas station the truck died, I assumed I ran out of gas. I put a few gallons of gas in the front tank but it still wouldn't start. I put five more gallons in the front tank, and put five gallons in the back tank. I had never used the back tank, I bought the truck in February and never bothered to put gas in the back tank. Anyway, truck still wouldn't start. I replaced the fuel filter, which was clogged up, and thought that would fix it. Engine just spins, kinda acts like its trying to start, but mostly just spins. My father comes over and hears it trying to start and says he thinks it is the timing. So we turn the distributor to retard the timing and it starts and runs, runs rough, but runs none the less. So we decided the timing chain has either jumped a tooth or the chain has too much slack in it. I change the timing chain, and just my luck it has the silent type chain instead of the cheaper double roller set. I removed the SPOUT connector and set the timing to 10 degrees BTDC and it just spins over and won't start. I can retard the timing to about 20 degrees and it will start and run pretty good, good enough that I drove it to the gas station and back a couple of times. But if I step on the accelerator quickly from idle it will just die. If I accelerate very slowly it will stay running and has plenty of power. A few times while sitting and idling it will just sputter and die.

After all that...my question is, where do I start trying to figure out what is wrong with my truck? Has anyone else had a similar problem or have any ideas what the problem may be?