Take it from someone who has had timing after head rebuild WAY off, you would at least have some indication of ignition. I can't remember exactly (it was over a year ago and my short term just ain't what it used to be), but I want to say I was off by 10 or 12 teeth on the cam. It was a disaster figuring it all out. But even with that I was able to drive it down the road--ran like crap, but I was still able to drive. As long as you don't have valve to piston interference, I would think it'd at least give you a little ignition. As suggested, I would look at glow plugs. After that, I'd consider testing compression just to make sure you didn't adjust valves opposite of their stroke. One thing that I do remember helped me alot in getting timing back was taking off the #1 injector line and rotating the motor to see when the valve would spit. Then look at the cam lobe on #1 to see if you're on the right stroke. I would also look to make sure that vacuum shutoff on the ip didn't get bumped around during the head r&r.

Good luck!

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1998 E300D, 287k, barely broken in.