I went through the whole routine of one spark plug at a time, no change. Rechecked every connection under the hood I could think of. Turns out the problem was electrical vs. mechanical.
As part of the engine swap I was to relocate the battery to the trunk, so the battery was sitting on a stool next to the car. The jumper cables I was using to try and start the car with just could not pull enough amps to even turn it over, much less start a new tight engine. It dawned on me late Saturday afternoon that this might be my problem, so I dug out some old 1 gauge welding cable I had. When I connected those she started up on the first turn of the key. After the meticulous work building and install the new engine, in the end it’s something obvious or stupid that will trip you up. Oh well stuff happens.
I’d like to thank everybody for the really great suggestions. I’ll post a link later today to a video we made at the moment of ignition. I won’t be posting all the videos we made of when it didn’t start, way to many of those…lol
Thanks again!