But without the marks on front cover then the line on the crank pulley/balancer is meaningless
Not sure why you don't see it?
You can pull the crank pulley bolt and use the key way to mark the pulley, so you have a TDC reference, then put the bolt back in, so you can manually turn the crank
Doesn't matter where the key way is when you remove the bolt, just put a mark on crank pulley that shows YOU where key way is, when bolt is back on
Key way will be at 12:00 for #1 piston at TDC 0deg
But as others have said thats TDC for #1 AND #5 cylinders, thats why distributors can be 180deg out
You want TDC compression stroke for #1 as Dirtman described
But..........................you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right the first time, and 100% chance the 2nd time, lol
So put crank at #1 TDC
Install distributor rotor so it points at #1 spark plug wire
Crank engine, if it fires up then you guessed right
If it doesn't then remove cap, lift up distributor and rotate the rotor 180deg from where it was when lifted this time
Reinstall
Start engine