Cam was installed dot to dot. Verified #1 was at TDC with my thumb over the hole and felt compression. Prior to putting the heads on, I verified the 0 degree mark on the balancer was accurate.
Ok, you have some issues. One is you have no idea where the cam is timed. Lining up the dots doesn’t mean a thing. There are dozens of threads on here about degreeing a cam and how to do it. It needs to be done. I wouldn’t fire the engine until I pulled it apart and degreed the cam.
And, you have not verified TDC yet. Blowing your thumb off the plug hole is about as accurate as lining up the dots and throwing the timing gear on. You can be off 10 degrees (or more) and not have a clue.
In summary, you have no idea what your cam timing is. And, you don’t know if your damper and timing cover are correct.
The former affects performance. The latter affects ignition timing. Again, I say start over and fix it now, because when it doesn’t run like you think it should you’ll get the same answers I just gave you.
