Rebuilt 318 Refuses to Start

I will be trying all of these tonight when I go out with my Dad. He's been involved and I'd like to wait for him. What has us the most confused is why the spark plugs are completely dry even though the carb is filling up with gas. After reading post #17, I just ran out to the garage and made sure the carb had gas, gave it 3 pumps and it coughed for a second, and with every crank it shot out a mist of gas, is this normal? We have been gunshy on the gas since the first day where we think we flooded the crap out of it. I will try all of these things tonight. Here's how I intend to start:

1. Find TDC #1 on compression stroke.
2. Set the Harmonic balancer to 8 deg adv. - I heard this is what sbm like to be at for starting, correct me if I'm wrong. Or should I try to start it at TDC first?

3. Put the spark plug back in
4. Put the plugs on the dizzy
5. Put at least half a cup of gas in her
6. Crank

If this doesn't work, I'm starting with the things listed here.

As another question that I have seen different answers to online: the timing cover has 5 degrees before and after TDC, with a mark for TDC. 8 marks underneathe TDC (towards the bottom of the engine) would indicate ADVANCE, right? And the 5 above the TDC mark (towards the hood) would be 8 degrees RETARDED. Or do I have those flipped?