Timing Chain Replaced, Now Backfires-107 560

[Strife]

Well, I changed my timing chain and all other timing chain related components, the water pump, all belts, hoses, antifieeze. The good news is, I've turned it over enough to have developed full oil pressure and no parts went through the side of the block or cam covers. The bad news is that it's not starting, just backfiring a bit. I am absolutely certain that my wires to the plugs are correct, they've been checked against a diagram in the manual. I am a little worried, though, that I cleaned the 1/4" of gunk from my distributor and now I can't really say where it was in the "slot" for mounting it. It's my understanding that you get this "close" and the computer takes it from there.
When the distributor was replaced, the timing mark and both cams (naturally, both!) were in the 0 position and the rotor was definitely pointing at the mark on the edge of the distributor.

Questions:


Naturally, I had my fuel pump hoses (the ones crossing over the cam cover) disconnected for a long time. If I've had it reconnected and trying to start, the fuel should have returned by now, (after about 15-20 seconds of cranking and maybe a minute in the 1 position. Could this still be an issue?

Should I move the dist back and forth until I find the "sweet spot?".

Should this take some cranking to get back to "normal" or am I paranoid?