Nissan Repair: 96 altima timing marks, chain and sprockets, haynes manual

Question
On the vib damper are about 6 timing marks.  Which one is TDC?  I am setting cam timing, and had wedged lower timing chain while the head was off, but I think it slipped a tooth. I marked the chain and sprockets to each other, but not to the head.  I dont want to bend the valves!

Answer
Martin,

The center mark should be zero.  If you brush off the balancer and the pointer you should see where it is stamped zero.  A tooth off one way or the other is not going to bend the valves but the car will either have no power off the line if it is advanced a tooth and no power on top end if it is retarded a tooth.  The best thing I can say is get a factory service manual or a Haynes manual and follow the diagram for getting the timing marks to line up at both the crank and the cam.  Remember that the chain has slack on one side and you have to rotate it over twice and stop on zero to make sure everything lines up.