Mass air/Timing

Help. Today I installed my mass air conversion kit on my 88 GT. All went well until I got to the timing part. Ford said to advance the timing to 14 degrees before top center. I understand this but have no clue on how to identify the degrees. After playing around with the timing gun and distributer cap I took the car for a test drive. During the test drive the rpms would hesitate to come down when upshifting. How do I set the right timing degree and, why did Ford say 14 in the directions? Is this problem related to the timing?
Thx a lot for any help. :banghead:

get steel wool, crawl under the front of the car, and scrub the shit off the balancer. rotate the engine 180* with a socket and a breaker bar to get the other side. you should be able to see the marks then. identify 14* BTDC and mark it with a highlighter. remove the spout connector, start the car, and set the timing, then plug the spout back in. should run fine.

The numbers are on the side of the balancer?

The numbers are on the side of the balancer?

yeah they're on the flat edge. there's a mark for TDC and some numbers with degree marks. you'll be able to figure it out.

Get your face close enough to the balalncer and turn it. You'll see what he is talking bout lol