I just replaced timing belt/water pump & head gasket on a 96 civic hx. Got it all back together and it's not starting. It is just turning over kinda rough and I can hear it starting to sputter.

the crank pully is lined up at the pointer at the white mark (tdc) and the marks on the cam gear are also parallel to the head. could it being a tiny bit off (barely noticable) make it not start at all?
firing order is alright, checked all sensors, vaccum lines and it is getting fuel and spark.

It ran fine before I had it apart (except for overheating b/c of the bad headgasket)

Cam gear timing off one tooth was my first guess but everything is lined up ok. what else could it be?

I have turned it more than once and the cam gear & crank pulley both still hold the same TDC at the same points.

as far as the dizzy goes, I tried advancing some w/ no luck, actually seemed less likely to start. when I retarded it some it seemes like it wanted to start a little bit more.

It sounds to me like the cam gear is off, but both the cam gear & the crank pulley appear to be at TDC. If both are at TDC, is it possible that the timing could be off?
But it seems like it wants to start but then it sputters really rough & kills itself right before it can get going, which sounds like timing issues.

Even if the cam gear was barely off, say one tooth or 2 teeth at most, would that cause it to not start at all, even with retarding the dizzy? ( that made it want to start a little bit more, tried advancing it too but made it worse)

Please help! thanks