What would be the symptoms of an engine running with the timing gear marks not exactly correct but you thought they were correct when you covered it up? This would be for a 74 390.

 

A friend did that to his SBC...off by 2 teeth! His engine ran fine but wouldn't accelerate past about 2500 rpm. It was in a boat, so constant load. So basically, no power up high for him.

I suppose if the teeth were off in the opposite direction, no power down low.

 

Yeah, it depends on which way, and how much.

Why do you ask ?

 

A slipped timing chain would basically behave the same way. When mine slipped it would only run with the pedal floored and would only go to 500 rpm at that. Next time I tried it it wouldn't even start no matter what I did cus it had slipped further. So like kewat said, it all depends on how far off.