Top dead center is top dead center no matter which way you turn the engine because you are only talking about the pistons in their bore. Nunber 1 and 6 will both be on TDC at the same time. Now if you are talking about no. 1 fire then turn the engine over till no. 1 blows your finger off the spark plug hole then line the ball up with the pointer and that will be no. 1 fire. To adjust the timing you will have to turn the engint a tiny bit backwards till the pointer is lining up with about 6 or 8 degrees before TDC and the distributer rotor is lined up with the hole where no.1 wire is pluged in. Set the points to the correct gap, use an ohm meter and turn the distributer the opposite direction of the rotor till the ohm meter breaks contact. The engine should be real close to the running timing.
