Ya this sounded alot scarier than what it turned out to be. I'm curious about something though. My timing belt is pretty loose and the truck will only start up for a brief moment and then die. I take it back about the timing marks being slightly off, i think the angle i was viewing them at made them look offset. Everything seems to line up. Im wondering why my engine would fail to stay running, even with a loose timing belt, if all of the marks are still lined up? unless of course it slipped exactly enough teeth to fall back into alignment.

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1998, 2WD, 5sp, 2.5L, 135k as of 12/29/2012