How about this: The tab on the cam istelf (which is what locks the cam into the cam gear) should be at the 6 o'clock position. This should put the timing dot or notch, on the outer edge of the cam gear, at about 10:30.

If you remove the head and look at the valves they should sit neatly in the recesses. If they're backwards, one side will have a little space between the valve and the edge of the recess and the other side will have the valve resting on the valve opening and there will be a little space between the valve and the head.

There's also a small chance that in grinding the valves they messed them up by removing too much material. I think the mismatch is more likely though.

 

If the timing was off yeah, you could have zero compression. If one of the valves is opening as the cylinder is trying to compress then there wouldn't be any pressure.

 

okay, i did the timing correctly this time and still not starting. I doubt the valves are mixed up b/c a very good machine shop did it. I am going to check the compression some time this week and then pull the head.

 

Okay, found the prob. When the timing was off, the valves hit the pistons and bent. Should be fixed soon. Thanks for the help everyone