OK, let me explain what happened. And tell me what to do. I turned the car on after overhaul, and I immediately needed to break in the new camshaft and new lifters for 20 min at 2000 RPM.
Once I started the car, there was an insane exhaust sound like a leaking manifold, like the car was coughing. It seemed slow like it was going to stall then I hit the gas hard and went to the 2000 RPM, and held it there varying it for 20 min. Insane smoke was coming out but my guess is this was oil that was all over the block and was just burning off after the overhaul. There was also a strange rattling or spinning sound - that went away after the 10 min mark. The valves had quite a bit of oil in them when I was assembling, and the pistons were well oiled during assembly.
Then I looked at the exhaust manifold to header pipe flange and it was glowing red, it was SO HOT (after this 20 min). Take foot off gas, it would do the coughing thing again, and almost stall. Coolant gauge never went into red. Radiator fan was working and would turn on and off on it's own.
Smoke started to calm down after 20 min until now it's gone completely.
Put the timing light on it next try and there is an arrow like where your tab is above in the photo with the lines in it, it's just an arrow, and those lines that indicate the degrees are on the pulley. The lines on the pulley were WAY OFF to the right side, almost 45 degree off.
I started to turn the distributor AGAINST the direction of the rotor spinning, which means I turned the distributor CLOCKWISE as the rotor turns COUNTER-CLOCKWISE. I turned it all the way to the end of the range and it brought the timing marks within the arrow but not to the center (15 degree BTDC + or - 2 degree is what the manual says for timing) I got it to like 5 degree at the end of the range. So then I lifted up the distributor and jumped 1 tooth by turning it CLOCKWISE. Now I swung it to the other end of the range where the hold down bolt is, and it's close but on the other side, so it's sitting at +25 degrees right now at that maximum of the range. The car sounds WAY smoother and that strange exhaust noise is gone. However, the radiator last night started to get steamy and it smelt like coolant was evaporating and I saw liquid on the bottom of the radiator. I turned the car off. Coolant gauge never moved off of center.
So as you can see, I can't get it to 15 degrees because 15 is in the MIDDLE of the two distributor teeth.
Now here's the messed up thing. I SUSPECT the LH camshaft pulley (distributor is on LH side too) is off by 1 tooth at the timing mark. I couldn't get it to line up when installing the belt no matter what, the dot on the pulley was either to the left of the mark or the right of the mark on the timing cover. I installed the pulley with the dot to the LEFT of the mark on the rear cover. In other words, it was half a tooth off on either side.
QUESTIONS:
a) Could this POTENTIAL 1 tooth off on the timing belt cause the scenario where I can't get the distributor to line up to 15 degree BTDC?
b) In the initial scenario, did I detonate the engine if those timing marks were down to the RIGHT side in your photo. In other words, I was likely NEGATIVE degrees, as when I rotate the distributor CLOCKWISE, the timing marks on the right would move TOWARDS the arrow.
Now I notice at +25 degrees the idle speed seems HIGHER at 1000 RPM. It sounds smooth but it's higher.