I got images of the valve at the top of the cylinder. Please let me know what you think.

 

I think you should do your own compression check, I don't see anything bad. Leave the rocker arms off, and pushrods out, see what you have. IMO

 

I think that's what I will do. Put things back and do compression check. Thanks!

 

Cranked but didn't turned over.
I put everything back together and couldn't get the rig to start. On the distributor, I had the marks aligned and the slot looked to be the at the same position as the distributor Attachment 10054
At that position, the point gap is pointed to 4:30 o'clock position. When the distributor seat fully, the point gap pointed to 6:00 o'clock position. Is that right?
Here's how I aligned the Top Dead Center. Am I off by 180 degree?
Attachment 10053

 

Am I off by 180 degree? You need to make sure number 1 cylinder is TDC or close on compression stroke. Point gap at around .017", rotor bug is pointing to number 1 cylinder on the cap. Follow the timing order on the cap.

 

I'm taking a break today and didn't do much.
I found another way to verify TDC. The method is to stick a camera into plug #1 and record the motion of the piston. I can see moments of the piston as I moved the harmonic balancer. Piston come up and down in the video just like a gauge would sense pressure and vacuum so now I'm very sure that I nailed the TDC.
I will need to remove the distributor again to see if that's off by 180. I hoped that it is...

 

I still can't get it to turn over I'm not sure why.
The TDC is correct Camera View
Distributor aligned Attachment 10067
Marked position aligned Attachment 10068

 

Put a piece of kleenix in the spark plug hole (if are doing this by yourself), spot crank the engine over till it blows out the kleenix. That will put you on compression stroke, set the distributor to that. You need to ensure the timing is 1-8-5-6-whatever and follow that clockwise looking on the top of the distributor (I think with chevy it's clockwise) the firing order. Again the points should be breaking with #1 cylinder rotor pointing at #1 inside the distributor cap

 

I will try the Kleenex trick for compression stroke. Thank you

 

I haven't touched the rig until today. I believe I got the TDC correctly with the compression gauge but I'm so lost on distributor install.
Here's what I did:
1. I got #8 aligned with #6
2. In that position, the marks aligned like the following
3. After the distributor fully inserted, I got this position which is wrong
I need it to point to #8 on the distributor cap and it should point toward cylinder #1 at 5o'clock position such as this position
Does this mean I damaged the distributor?