Cranks a lot before starts if it starts

Hello, the car had a bad head gasket. I do all my own repair work and i am very mechanical. The car has always started right up every time and ran great. I just did a head gasket job on the car, new timing belt and everything that goes along with it. I resurfaced the head and put it all back together by the manual. New spark plugs. Now that the car is back together it has been hard to start. It cranks for like five to ten seconds before it starts. Sometimes it starts right up, but usually cranks a lot before starting. I also put a new cam and crank sensor in because i thought that maybe that was causing the issue. The hard starting is the same before and after the new cam and crank sensor. It never did this before i did the head gasket job. I have checked three times to make sure all the timing marks are lined up. And once the car starts, it runs perfectly. I have put probably one hundred miles on the car since i did the head gasket job. I got a check engine light on after about fifty miles for EGR valve flow issue which i did not have before, but its the original EGR valve at 240,000 miles so could be getting stuck. i do not think that would cause this. I cleared the code and has not come back yet. No issues running at all just the hard starting. Now today i went to get gas. It started hard this morning and then after i got gas i could not get it started. Had to have it towed back to my house. I tried after it cooled down and still would not start. It just cranks.
Any thoughts on what might be going on?
Thanks for your help.
Jon