Barry makes a good point. At one point I thought for sure I had skipped a tooth, especially since something in there near the ip gear pulls on the chain every so often--scare the pee out of me. So let's back up a little. If you could confirm that it's just a timing issue between cam and crank, you could save yourself alot of trouble. When I was way out of wack and confused beyond belief of how to get my 300d running again, I started with the crank, then the cam. I did at one point have everything off by 360, which Barry describes and then by four teeth--72deg, which ironically is one/fifth of 360. Long story of how I got there. But here's what I did to fix it. I removed #1 line off the pump and the spring stuff in there on that line so I could see when fuel wells up in there. With the chain on, I rotated engine til the pump welled up and then stopped at the next TDC. Then I looked at the cam. This is the compression stroke, the beginning of the 720 degree cycle (cam turns one revolution to the crank's two revolutions). To be sure you're on the compression stroke the first cam lobe has to be pointing to the driver's side at 90deg. Then lined up the cam timing marks and everything was fine. So if you've not already removed the ip, then it's worth a shot to confirm that the cam and crank are in sync on the compression stroke when the ip is ready to spit some fuel in #1.

Oh, adding the edit: When lining up cam timing mark, you've got to be sure the chain is under tension. The tensioner doesn't have to be installed necessarily, but you've got to apply some pressure on that side of the chain to get an accurate reading. One other thing. When rotating the engine by hand with the tensioner out, oil will squirt out of that little hole with pretty impressive volume.

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1998 E300D, 287k, barely broken in.