Thanks for all your help but the answer was a bit wierd. I guess a
small part of the foam air filter came loose and got sucked into the
cylinder and interfered with firing and let the valves leak.

I was trying the 'oil trick' (thanks Hippie...) and got up to 70#
compression when I added a bit of way oil and was able to get a
pop-pop-pop when cranking. Found some black gunk on top of the piston
and tried burning it out. No luck but did fix my eyebrows

So I tried a bit of carb cleaner in the plug hole and an oxygen stream
from my oxy torch in the carb and cranked; got a steady stream of
pop-pops and kept cranking until the rpms picked up a bit then let it
run on its own until I got more revs, then turned the Oxy off and let it
idle by itself. It apparently burned up/blew out the gunk fairly
quickly and began operating normally. The Oxy injection allowed easier
hotter combustion to let the engine run and burn/flush the gunk out.

I shut it down to put the valve covers back on and checked the
compression - was back to the 100# it used to run. Restarted easily and
everything appears normal now. All from a crappy foam air filter. I
replaced the element with a piece of pantyhose, would like to find a
pleated filter to fit (dealer doesn't list any, even aftermarket).

Thanks for everyone's help
Nick

--
Free men own guns, slaves don't
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5357/