With the distributor sitting with the hold down bolt in the middle of the slot, the cap off, rotor installed, harmonic pulley notch sitting at zero on the timing tab, #1 piston at TDC firing, the rotor should be at the #1 contact on the cap as you hold it up to the distributor where it mounts.
Have you checked the valve lash? I have not seen the cam specs for a cam that 22RE Performance offers. Did they provide the cam specs for this head and cam?
I don’t believe there is such as thing as a stupid question when rebuilding a 22RE.
Gnarls.
