Are you sure you used the proper marks on the timing gears for aligning them. I have seen the wrong marks used and that creates lots of bad mojo inside the engine.
Got the cover off, and low and behold, you were right. How embarrassing.
Snapped a couple of pictures, but haven't gotten them off the camera yet.
In the end, I didn't look at the crank sprocket closely enough. There are 3 keyways cut in it, with 2 of them marked with either -4 or +4. The other key had what I thought was the timing mark over it, when in fact it was a "0". The actual mark is a little tiny tick a couple of teeth away from it. I saw the zero, thought it was the mark and slammed it together. Never had one with the 3 possible keyways, didn't pay enough attention.
Wish I could find some way to blame this on someone or something else. No go, though.
