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There should be TWO sets of marks 180 degrees apart on an original flywheel for a side mount. They did it that way so you could use any spark plug wire for your timing light. The marks are stamped into the flywheel face, on the engine side, just inside the ring gear. The numbers are maybe 5/16ths of an inch high. They should be fairly obvious if you went over it tooth by tooth. It is possible that the original flywheel was replaced with a flywheel from a front-mount engine over the years, and that there are no timing marks to be found. You can make your own timing marks. The easiest place is the front crankshaft pulley. Using Dell's method, turn the engine until you find TDC for number 1 (compression stroke). There's a place on the timing cover, near the distributor, where you can use a cold chisel or a permanent marker to make an indicator line. Measure the diameter of the crankshaft pulley. Call this "D".
Calculate the following O = D * 4/360 * 3.14. (For an 8 inch diameter pulley O = 0.28 inches) Make a second mark on the crankshaft pulley rim offset by distance "O" from the first mark. A cold chisel works best for this one. The offset should be counter-clockwise from the first mark, looking from the REAR of the engine. The two marks, when aligned with each other, should now indicate the 4 degrees BTDC initial timing for the side mount. Alternatively, just find TDC, mark the timing cover and pulley where they're at (thereby making a 0 BTDC mark), and just eyeball in a 0.25 inch offset with your timing light as you set the timing.
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