Most American made cars have the timing mark on the crank pulley. I say most, because I'm not familiar with some import models and how they time their vehicles or if they use any marks at all.
Check the crank shaft pulley
on the crank pulley
The marks are on the timing belt cover,and on the pulley for the crank.
perhaps crank pulley has slipped from original position
The timing marks on a 1997 Suzuki Esteem is on the crankshaft pulley. The crank mark needs to line up with the ignition timing mark.
fist u have too move timing belt cover than mark the timing and remove the timing belt after that u can take out a crank pully out (makesouer timing mark is right)
Line the mark on the crank pulley up with the mark on the timing cover, and line the distributor rotor up with the mark on the pickup plate.
There are 4 marks on the crank pulley. When standing on the driver side of the car looking down on the pulley, the mark farthest to the right is the mark for TDC (Top Dead Center). The three marks on the left are for the spark timing. Of these three the mark in the center should align with the arrows/triangles on the timing belt cover when the engine is running and a timing light is shining on the crank pulley. The outer two marks represent Honda's tolerances for the ignition timing. Be sure to let the engine warm up before checking/adjusting the timing.
Cams will point straight up to match marks on housing and crank will be at about 1 o'clock where mark on crank pulley will line up with mark on oil pump casing
The timing mark is on the crank pulley, a little " V " cut. It gets aligned with the 8 degree BTDC mark on the degree scale just above the crank pulley on the timing belt cover. Use an induction timing light hooked up to the #1 spark plug wire (front of engine) and the battery. Painting the timing marks white helps to see. I use white out. Works good.
There is no timing mark for the crank pulley. It has a ring behind it with teeth. One of the teeth are missing. The crankshaft position sender picks up a magnetic electrical pulse that determines when that cylinder is to fire. The timing is controlled by the PCM (Power Control Module). The timing can't be set.
Timing mark on the crankshaft pulley (mark should be at zero) must be aligned with the mark on the camshaft pulley (mark should be in the middle of the hole in the pulley).