timing my 5.7 350

I am in the process of finishing up an engine swap for my truck. There is a notch on the timing chain cover and on the harmonic balancer. Are these suppose to match up when at tdc? Also when you seat the distributor, how can you tell if the bottom shaft and the oil unit meet up?

What year are we talking about here? The Vortec's require a scan tool to set the cam retard. With the TBIs, disconnect the EST connector and set the timing to 0.

The dist will not drop all the way down if the dist does not seat with the oil pump. In this case, bump the starter until it drops all way down.

//2000CAYukon