[dmarucci]

Hello all, Dan here. First post on this forum. I picked up a 2007 Ninja 250 for my daughter last week. It has 20,400 miles on it. It was not running at the time, but was very clean. After I ordered a new battery (old one simply would not take a charge), I did the following:
1) Read quite a bit on Ninja250.org
2) Took off all the fairings
3) Thoroughly cleaned everything
4) Replaced spark plugs (old ones had enormous amount of erosion).
5) Verified spark (using another battery and jumper cables)
6) drained the fuel tank and removed valve and cleaned it. Lots of water, but tank had NO rust inside, rinsed it with alcohol and dried it. Valve opens with vacuum and does not leak.
7) removed carbs, soaked all jet and screws separately in Berryman Chem-Dip
8) soaked carb bodies (without diaphragms) on chem dip.
9) Blew carb cleaner through all openings, verified that it exited in the right place and reinstalled all jets and screws. 2 1/2 turns out on mixture screws. O-rings and washers in place correctly on mix screws. The carbs were not very dirty to start with.
10) Did a cold compression test (dry, throttle wide open). 55 left, 60 right.

This led to a mountain of concern.

11) Tore off valve cover and checked gaps. Exhaust was less than 0.002 inches on all 4 valves. Corrected this (and dropped a feeler gage into the cam chain gallery- retrieved with neo magnet and duct tape. All EX gaps are 0.005-0.006 inches. All intakes are 0.004 in.

Redid compression test. 60 left, 70 right.

Even spraying starter fluid into the airbox, this thing doesn't even kick, it just spins like the plugs are out.

It's too high to be a hole in a piston, but too low to probably run.
What does everyone else get on a stock cold compression test?

Next steps? How do I do a wet test to see if it's rings vs valves?
There's no oil in the coolant and the oil is not the typical milky brown you normally get from a blown head gasket.

What does everyone think? I hate to pull the head, but I may not have a choice.

Thanks!!!
Dan____