Hello all and thanx in advance......

driving my 88 deville the other day when it started running rough and suddenly died/stalled out.
checked out what i could roadside and tried restarting.
i noticed it would occaisionally backfire through the TBI, so I moved the distributor clockwise about the equivalent of one plug wire and it restarted.
it idled ok and revved in park smoothly, so i put it in gear and hit the gas.
it almost stalled out but finally caught and off i went. on the way back home it did the same thing again, quit while driving along at 45mph-coast to stop
restart put in gear-die/almost die-go a short distance,etc.
trying to accelerate quickly it would jerk and miss and ran rough.
got home-wouldn't start-2nd time twisted the distributor clockwise about 1 plugwire- restarted idles fine/in gear stalls/hesitateshttp://cadillacforums.com/forums/images/smilies/banghead3.gif

it's a 4.5L about 158,000 miles

computer says advance is 12 degrees on the display
timing light i don't see the timing mark anywhere in sight ( yes i know where it is and what it looks like and have timed the engine only about 1 month ago)

are 4.5l timing chains known to jump a tooth or two?
or am i missing something?http://cadillacforums.com/forums/images/smilies/eek.gif

I have an 89' 4.5 with 220k on it and never had a problem. My biggest problem is a common one. The intake gaskets leak oil like crazy. I have not heard of this being a known problem with the 4.5 although that's what it sound like. I may have heard some talk a while back about the distributor gear breaking or slipping or something.