Upper timing chain install....HELP

[NovaRally77]

First off...1994 Nissan Altima GXE, 2.4L 16-Valve Twin Cam I4, 5 Speed tranny, with about 160,000 miles. Had to have the head machined because the valves in the fourth cylinder were stuck and therefore keeping it from firing. In the process of re-assembly, we seemed to have lost the correct position for the upper timing chain. We planned to take it off and put it back on the exact same way to avoid this situation. However Murphy's law has reared its ugly head! We are aware of the marks on the camshaft gears and the idler gear, as well as the three special links on the timing chain itself. We put the chain on, aligning the gold link with the idler gear mark. Then we aligned the camshaft marks with the two remaining silver links. Then to test to see if this was correct, we spun the engine through a full intake and exhaust compression stroke (2 full rotations of the camshafts). To our surprise all three of the marked links were off by one link. We spun it through another full intake and compression stroke, and then found that the marks were 2 links off. We are completely stumped by this. Are we doing something wrong? Could it be a bad tensioner? We are lost!!!! Any feedback would be great, thanks in advance!

[JustSayGo]

The crankshaft turns twice for each revolution of the camshafts. One camshaft revolution completes every cycle of all cylinders. When the timing marks are lined up at top dead center, piston #1 and piston #4 are at TDC. Check the timing by aligning the TDC marks on the crankshaft pulley and timing cover, look at the cam lobes. When the camshafts are in time, all the valves on cyl #1 will be open a little and all the valves on cyl #4 will be completely closed, or the exact opposite. In either position the cams will be correctly timed. The difference will be either cyl #1 or cyl #4 will be firing. The distributor rotor should be pointing to the same plug wire in the cap that has the cam lobes pointing up and the valves closed. Count to make sure there are 14 timing chain pins and rollers between the timing marks on the camshaft sprockets. I don't think the chain can jump over a tooth on a sprocket. You probably have the cams timed correctly. Imagine if there were only one long chain or when a belt is used to turn the cams. The crankshaft turns about 10 times as the belt goes around once and the drive teeth don't need to line up with timing marks. By design the same thing happens with a KA24DE except only one link less than a match because the chain is considerably shorter.

[dbaction]

Is it possible to replace timing chain with engine in the bay or does it have to be removed/

[MattG07]

that will happin with the chain. i have a 97 altima GXE that i did a head gasket job on. i've went thru evrything u can think of to try to get this motor to start. i cranks over fine with the fuel pump relay out but wen i install it the car starts boggin like crazy. so i have the negative cable off of the battery hopin to reset the injectors. will that work? ny other suggestions?