Mini Cooper Forums,

I didn't see this when I searched threads, so forgive me if this is already answered.

Does the flywheel locking pin tool go in place before piston #'1s exhaust (up) movement or intake (down) movement in the piston cycle?

Background, I'm a non-gearhead working on my second Gen2 Mini Cooper Timing Chain fix on a second Gen2 Mini (my first timing chain fix is holding with 10K miles and counting) and I had to tear this new engine apart because it turned out to be a leaking head gasket in addition to the timing chain. After I took the cylinder head off I made the mistake of taking the flywheel locking pin tool out so I could check the pistons for visible damage by rotating the crankshaft thinking I would just put the locking pin tool back in after I looked at them, little did I realize that there are two 90" piston positions (one is before #1/#4 intake stroke, and one is before #1/#4 exhaust stroke). I've spent a week staring at this engine trying to figure it out. I figure I have three options at this point:

1) Hopefully stumble across the answer from one of you with much more knowledge than I possess.
2) Take a 50/50 gamble and just pick one of the two 90" positions (either the car will fire or misfire right?)
3) Put my first working Mini back on jackstands and put chopsticks in the sparkplug holes and then slowly turn the crankshaft while watching the camshafts turn to see if I can figure out the piston sequence visually (I don't want to do this if I don't have to as the first Mini is my daily driver and Murphy's Law predicts "what can go wrong, will go wrong...")

Any advice? I purchased the yellow Bentley branded Mini Cooper service manual and I didn't see the answer in there either.

Thank you,
Wes