Finding tdc without a flywheel
 

I've just bought a 1988 2.5 8 valve second hand engine to drop into my car. Before fitting I want to change the belts and pulleys. The engine has had the clutch and flywheel removed by the shop I bought it from (making it ready to replace the rear main seal).

My question is how can I set the engine to top dead centre without the flywheel attached as I am not planning on taking the old engine out of the car until the new one is ready so don't have the parts to transfer.

Put a wood dowel in cylinder number one in the spark plug hole and crank it around until the dowel is at the highest point

Use Plyhammer's method plus the mark on the cam gear. But double check it when you get the flywheel back on.

Thanks very much to both of you.

It's best to measure for a particular piston depth before and after TDC and split that to find actual TDC. You'll find that the piston seems to hover at TDC for a few degrees since the piston speed relative to the crank RPM drops off so much near TDC and BDC.