I think I'm going to take off my driver side valve cover and look at the #1 cylinder valves as I hand rotate the engine to find out when I'm at #1 TDC. Can I do this? When exactly will it be at TDC? When intake valve begins to lift?

Another method mentioned to me was sticking a small screwdriver in the spark plug hole, but I'm not really comfortable doing that. If anyone has any other ways to check I'm all ears. I'm just trying to avoid taking off the crank hub and timing cover again unless I absolutely have to.

Right now I have waterpump, opti and pulley removed so I'm ready to go.

 

Put your finger over the spark plug hole, rotate the engine, when compression blows your finger away from the hole, you are close to TDC.

 

You can look at the front of the cam and see where the cam is and also look at the crank snout to see if it is in phase.