360 timing cover install- Help!

If you drop the pan you can clean it and the oil pick up screen. Timing cover goes on easy when the pan is out of the way. The one advantage to nylon gears and runners that so many engine contain. No choice but drop the pan to get the debris out of it.
The GM owners could boast about their little sheet metal timing cover, "goes on sooooo damn easy". Then they would admit, "No oil, had to drop the pan anyway". I would say, "Could have been worse. Could have been a front wheel drive Eldorado".
Good luck