Well, it's my turn to ask for suggestions..

I said this earlier. You know what cam is in the engine? You can check cam timing fairly accurately if you are careful, right in the engine. You DO however, need to know what cam is there and obtain the card.

There HAS been cases here and other forums recently on cam timing screwups.

One example is my distant neighbor "out of town." He had a purple shaft which, it turns out, needs to be advanced "a ways" to run in a street engine, plus it was in a pickup. In that case, the cam drive / cam was off "dot to dot" which put the cam at least 2* FURTHER retarded from factory. As I recall we wound that thing ahead about 6*. According to him it made the difference between night and day.

Another is a guy over?? at MyMopar or somewhere. He had an advance/ retard cam drive --with multiple keyways. he had screwed that setup all up. Finally after he posted photos at the teardown, we all knew what was wrong.

Do not take ANYthing for granted.

You have not said a single word about checking the timing marks. (piston stop) That is one of the FIRST things you should have done --- if for no other reason than getting it off the table.