-and it looks like you start work early!
There are two kinds of timing - valve timing and ignition timing. The valve timing is what your buddy did by lining up the marks on the gears, so the valves open at the right time in relation to the position of the crankshaft (and therefore pistons). The valve timing is really set by the shape of the lobes on the camshaft so that the valves open and close at just the right time according to the engine designers - non-adjustable.Now ignition timing is what everybody talks about adjusting all the time. This is when the spark fires, compared to the position of the piston, and is adjustable. The way it is done is by loosening the distributor mounting, and rotating the distributor a bit one way or the other. On a TEA, rotating it clockwise is advancing the timing. But, if you guys didn't have the distributor out or anything, the timing will have been retained through the operation and you should be in good shape (assuming you were beforehand).
"Normally" - like on a car, for example, there is a mark on the crankshaft pulley and some kind of pointer on the timing cover. When the mark on the pulley lines up with the pointer, the #1 piston is at Top Dead Centre, and from there you can figure out how to set the ignition timing (as the spark normally fires somewhere close to when the piston is at TDC). But that would be too easy, so on a TEA there is a small hole just beneath the starter motor, probably filled with dirt and therefore invisible. Then there is a matching hole in the flywheel just behind, so that when the #1 piston is at TDC these holes line up. All you have to do is stick a wire in, rotate the engine with a hand crank, and when the wire slides into the flywheel hole you're at TDC. Easy eh?
Hope it helps,
Jim
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