Can you post a quick picture of it? Timing marks can be very faint and sanding and painting over the years can make them even fainter.
If you have two people handy, you can use a 15/16 socket and breaker bar to roll the motor (in a clockwise direction facing the front of the engine) Using the bolt on the vibration damper. Easiest if you remove all the spark plugs. Put you thumb, or if you are me, my big fat index finger in the number one spark plug hole. This is the furthest one forward on the passenger engine bank.
As your assistant (usually my wife) rolls the motor with the breaker bar, you will feel suction and then obvious pressure trying to blow you finger out of the hole. Stop at this point. you are coming up on the compression stroke. Grab a plastic straw and put it in the spark plug hole. Now slowly rotate the motor and keep the straw with a little pressure on it. The piston will push in upward to a point and then stop and go down. Roll the motor counterclockwise and clockwise a bit until you feel you have the piston at the top as best you can.
You are close enough to inspect the area of the damper under the timing pointer. Do you have a pointer? Normally on the left side of the motor.
I have had two cases of customers cars lately with no pointers and newer timing case covers. One was a newer crate motor from Ford.
Rob