Trust me, the mark is there. It's a line, none-too-energetically-stamped or scored from front to back.
But you can proceed as you describe with one added touch. TDC is indeed when the piston is at the top of its stroke. You'll want the piston as close to level at the top as you can get it.
Trick is that the piston goes there twice on each full cycle, at the top of both the compression and the exhaust strokes. To time the ignition, you need it at the top of the compression stroke. To determine that with the head off, put your second from the front push rod back in so that it rests on the cam. Turn the motor by hand a few times and watch its action. The second rod from the front acts on your intake valve. Watch for that rod to rise and go back down. The piston should be fairly near bottom when it does go back down. From that point, turning in the same direction (clockwise when facing the front of the motor) slowly bring the #1 piston up to the top. That's the point to set up your static timing.
If there's some reason for setting up the timing now, that's the way to do it. If you wait until you have the head back on and still can't find the timing mark, you can find top dead center by turning the motor until you feel the compression forcing air out the plug hole on #1. Bring the piston up until it appears near the top. (Don't put the wire I'm escribing in until it the piston is very near the top, and emember to take it back out -- you don't want it falling in there! If you can find a small screwdriver that will balance and do what I describe, use it if the handle is large enough not to fall in.) Then fashion a piece of stiff wire and insert it through the plug hole so that one end rests on top of the piston and enough of it sticking out for you to see clearly. Basically, you'll have a little see-saw with the edge of the plug hole as a fulcrum. Use the fan to rock the motor back and forth until the outer end of the wire is at its lowest point, meaning that the piston is at its highest point, which is TDC, and go from there.
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Today's Featured Article - Choosin, Mounting and Using a Bush Hog Type Mower - by Francis Robinson. Looking around at my new neighbors, most of whom are city raised and have recently acquired their first mini-farms of five to fifteen acres and also from reading questions ask at various discussion sites on the web it is frighteningly apparent that a great many guys (and a few gals) are learning by trial and error and mostly error how to use a very dangerous piece of farm equipment. It is also very apparent that these folks are getting a lot of very poor and often very dangerous advice fro
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