ya you can but you don't have too. have someone bump the starter, over. put your finger over the spark plug, after taking out the plug on the number one cylinder. When the eng is bumped over you will eventualy fill air push against your finger. Stop turn the eng over; by turning the eng by hand or with a wrench until the mark on the balancer, is on the 0 mark on the timing cover the eng is now at top dead on the number one cylinder. Make sure the distubutor rotor is pointing at the number one on the distrubutor cap. Drop it, you have to turn the distubutor about two mark before number one, once the ditubutor seats it will then be on the one one cylinder on the cap. good luck