Tero,It would appear that the 61 shop manual has a discrepancy. As far as I'm aware, all the Y blocks have the crank gear keyways at 1 o'clock and the camshaft gear keyways are at 7 o'clock to get to the 3 o'clock 'dot' orientation on both gears that Pete mentioned.
If an engine has fuel, compression, and spark (in the right spot of course), it should fire up or at least make some noise. You didn't say if you were getting any backfires but if you are, then I'd be looking in the direction of the ignition timing with the distributor either 180° off or just needing to be repositioned enough to get the initial timing somewhere close to TDC.
I'd suggest checking the compression on a few of the cylinders to insure that it is adequate. Having at least 140psi pressure at cranking will rule out most mechanical issues such as valve lash being set too tight, camshaft timing, ring seal, valves leaking by, etc. If you check the compression on all the cylinders, then the acceptable range between the lowest and highest readings should be no more than 10%.
I'd also be checking for ignition spark early on. With voltage going to the coil, you should be able to work the breaker points open and closed and get spark out of the coil wire when the distributor cap end of the coil wire is placed approximately 1/4" from a grounded surface. At this point, you're checking for spark from the coil and not from the cap. Spinning the engine over with the cap in place and the coil wire removed from the cap where the free end is placed close to an engine ground will also accomplish the same thing. The spark should be a nice clean blue spark and be at least 3/16" long. Longer is better though. If the spark is orange or yellow and fails after 1/8" gap, then start looking hard at the ignition components or the voltage going to the coil.
And then there's fuel. It needs to be fresh. I've seen instances where old fuel just doesn't want to ignite. If the fuel is fresh and the carb is shooting fuel into the engine when the throttle is opened, then it could just be a simple matter of needing more fuel than a couple of shots. Especially on a new engine. But you have to be cautious as flooding the engine and fouling the plugs is also possible if pumping too much fuel into the engine. Pulling the spark plugs and checking for wetness will give you an indication of flooding.
Give a shout back and let us know what you find.