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Since your valve clearances havn't changed I would think and hope the valves are ok....... mine went from .004 or .005 to .013 and .0145 when I knew I had a problem and even then it should turn over ok it just won't seal for compression. Wish I had a idea but I don't

Maybe one thing the last time before setting it at tdc did you go up to it by turning the engine clock wise. I saw that you said you were turning it counter clockwise and am thinking that that would get you in the wrong spot.... right guys??

If you were able to rotate the engine freely, holding the chain taut while doing so and you then set your timing on the 1/4 T, and you set your cams in correctly (looks like it from the photo where the lobes on #4 intake and exhaust are pointing at each other.) and you tightened down the bearing blocks and the tensioner without moving anything....then your procedure was correct. Something else is causing the problem.

At this point if I could I would look to see if the valves are all opening and closing. If I could not see, then I would pull the head off, pull the valves and check them in the guides to see if they all move freely.

I'd check to see if the valve lash are to spec and not too large meaning a valve is bent causing a piston hitting it and stopping the crank from moving further. A slight bend won't do it, it would have to be badly bent.
Steve

Do you have all four cam end plugs accounted for?

One more thing I noticed in your photos. Your tach drive gear is still in place. I always remove it while installing the cams because it's difficult (but not impossible) to mesh the exhaust cam gear with the tack gear. Do you know if the two are properly seated?

Buy a cheap endoscopic camera and look into the spark plug holes @ TDC (ignition stroke) and investigate if the Piston doms and valves get in touch each other.

hardrockminer wrote: One more thing I noticed in your photos. Your tach drive gear is still in place. I always remove it while installing the cams because it's difficult (but not impossible) to mesh the exhaust cam gear with the tack gear. Do you know if the two are properly seated?

Yes. It is surprising how reluctant the tach pinion is to engage the cam gear. Trying to take shortcuts in the past nearly caused some damage, so now I pull the tach drive every time (or have it removed entirely permanently).