pressure was good, it was at almost 2 when it was idling and pegged when driving.
I dont know why he would try to turn it over by hand unless he was timing the injection pump or something !!!!

Heres what I have to go on re: compression
after I had it towed when it died, it started up first crank smooth next morning when I glowed it, it was in the upper 30 's when I did this, so basic compression would seem to be OK.