You didn't say, but this is for a 1997 2.3L, and my personal experience.
I had issues for EVER until I figured out what it was. The cam position sensor is driven off the oil pump, and is critical to align properly, and there are no less than THREE marks on the main cam gear and oil pump gear. I couldn't see the diamond on mine and aligned it to the arrow.
Crankshaft keyway vertical, and straight up. Do not worry about compression stroke and all that jazz, that's all determined by the camshaft, this just puts things at TDC.
Camshaft sproket is aligned using the ARROW. Lower left, about 4 to 5 o' clock if I recall correctly.
The oil pump gear is aligned using the DIAMOND. This is somewhat straight up and down if I recall correctly.
Ignore the stamped notches in the sprokets. Ignore the pressed in "dot" on the crankshaft gear.
Mine never threw a code whatsoever due to the cam position sensor being off.
Hope that helps. My condolences on the non starting, it's a real pain in the ass to take that all apart again. I did it 3 times.