Jerry -

This afternoon, I did what you said. peering through the #4 spark plug hole, I rotated the crank until the piston reached its maximum height. Looking that the timing marks, everything was lined up, exactly like previously pictured, when the piston stopped its uptravel. About a half a (camshaft) tooth more, and the piston starts its downtravel (crank mark is several degrees clockwise of 0 by this point). Does this sound right? I'm not exactly sure where I'm supposed to be taking the reading, as the piston seems to stay at its maximum height for a few degrees (at least as far as I can tell looking through the hole.

based on this, I would still say base timing still checks out. but I still have an uneasy feeling this is what's wrong. like you said, the symptoms seem to point being off here.

what would you recommend? pulling off the dampner and taking another stab at the base timing dispite this?

-Rob