Thanks for all of the advice! The results were as follows:

1) Went over all the connections/etc to make sure that nothing was loose or
forgotten.... on the back side of the engine, behind the intake housing, I
noticed what appeared to be a vaccuum hose that might not be attached. It
was hard to tell/see and sure enough, it was not attached to the spot on
the back of the intake housing.

2) Check engine light was only ON when the jumper was in for timing. I took
the jumper out to "test drive" it per the technician's suggestion and the
light was not ON.

3) After engine got hot, bled the remainder of the air from the cooling
system and then rechecked the timing, because it ran very nicely. Well,
when it was both hot and the vac hoses were all connected, it timed fine. I
had to let it warm up again so that the timing settled down those last few
degrees - when it kicked down into low idle it changed about 5 degrees...
and was easily able to be adjusted.

What a relief! Thanks again for ALL the help. This has been quite a
project. Wouldn't have been as bad if it were the only project I had to
complete.
--
KWW

"Elle" <honda.lioness@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:sobwf.4622$%W1.2516@newsread2.news.atl.earthl ink.net...
> "KWW" <kwalker@nospamaircooled.net> wrote
>> Put in a replacement engine in a car.
>
> Can you please verifiy here that the old and new engines
> have the same # stamped on them?
>
> Is the car fully warmed up (fan comes on TWICE, then you
> check) when you try to adjust the timing (with service check
> connector shorted)?
>
>> When I went to adjust the timing, the
>> 15 degree BTDC mark was way up so that I had to look up in
> the timing hole
>> to see it (could not look straight in and see it). I
> estimated roughly that
>> it was another 15 to 20 degrees out. The check engine
> light is ON. The
>> engine ran very smoothly.
>
>> Triple checked timing marks for timing belt (3rd time
> after running it for a
>> little).
>> Absolutely certain that the distributor is correctly set
> in the motor.
>
> What does the above mean?
>
> You did loosen the distributor housing hold-down bolts and
> attempt to get the timing right by rotating the housing,
> didn't you?
>
>> Per the Hayes manual I did put a jumper in the blue
> connector in the
>> passenger compartment to perform the timing check.
>>
>> That is when I took off the valve cover and top timing
> belt cover and used a
>> straight-edge to triple-check that the timing belt was not
> off by a tooth.
>> It was dead on with the top of the head.
>
> I know you said you checked it thrice, but IIRC, being
> unable to get anywhere in the neighborhood of the three, red
> BTDC marks and being 15-20 degrees off still suggests being
> off by a tooth. That's maybe not what you want to hear, but
> sometimes a systematic approach, when repeated enough,
> causes one to overlook simple things...
>
>