This is a timing question on a 22RE.

with the valve cover off so u can watch the crank tdc mark and the cam tdc mark at the same time, do the two marks line up every rotation? if not how often do they line up?

 

Every other, the crank spins twice as fast as the cam

 

thank you, i knew this... i just wanted to make sure i wasn't crazy. and now i can verify that my truck is FUXD

 

crank to cam ratio is always 2:1 in any engine. Is yours not doing this?

 

I don't see how it could not be doing it, unless your timing chain is too long (84 or earlier chain on an 85 or newer engine) or it's skipping chain links a lot. In that case you'd have bent a valve or 8 by now, right?