So I definitely screwed up something up but I'm not sure what.

I replaced the timing belt, the balancer belt, both tensioner pulleys, the water pump.... I made sure that the Cam pulley was in the UP position, and the key on the crank pulley was lined up with the arrow. I also made sure the line on the oil pump was lined up and I had a long bolt in the maintenance hole in the rear of the engine. The timing belt is somewhat tight, but I can twist it halfway at hte longest point. The balancer belt is somewhat loose but not sloppy. I have the valve cover on, but not bolted down. All of the accessory belts, and the timing covers are off.

I tried starting the car and there was a very LOUD scraping noise. WTF!

I went back and double checked all of the marks, they are all lined up. The noise seems to be coming from the left side of the engine as you are looking at it. I am completely baffled as I triple checked all the marks, turned the engine over a bunch of times by hand, and re-checked.

Any ideas what I screwed up?

 

It seems the noise is coming from the starter... I'm thinking about possibly removing the starter and seeing if any of the teeth are broken?

The odds of the starter just happening to fail at that exact moment make me think that is has to be somehow related to something I did.

I'm completely baffled.

 

I figured it out. Whoever changed the starter neglected to re-install the rear bolt. Why did this only become an issue now? My guess is that the force required to turn the engine from TDC was greater than the force required to move the starter. The starter pushed itself out of position and made grinding noises.

Problem solved. Now I just have to re-assemble