CNC-Dude is correct.
Your 6:00 and 12:00 has made me a little dizzy from holding my head sideways. Ha
Without already knowing that when the gear marks are together, this engine is at TDC/exhaust stroke, there is another way to tell.
If you use the bottom of the block as the horizontal reference, the crank key is at 12:00 oclock when the #1 crank journal is up and the piston at the top of the bore. Outside the view in the picture, the cam gear, key slot should be at about 1:00 oclock, again referencing the block. If you have an old cam and hold it with the key at 1:00, you will see that the #1 In and #1 Ex cam lobes are on either side of the virtical. It's easy to see that rotating the cam either way would move the lifters up.
There was an error earlier in this thread. The crank/dampener key slot DOES NOT line up with the dampener timing mark. The crank key slot is straight up no matter where the timing tab is. The same slot also indexes the crank gear.
Using a positive stop to find an accurate TDC is good, but you need the timing cover and balancer in place. I suggest getting the dist installed properly from where you are now. I also suggest readjusting the valves, if you have doubts about TDC location at the time you did it before.
