Good to hear you got it going.
Another weird one I could not believe.
I received a free old model Horse tiller with the later model Tecumseh engine with no carb on the engine. It had the 2-3 inch intake manifold steel pipe still attached to the head.
Sometime later I gently pulled on the start rope and no compression. Motor oil was very clean. I pulled the spark plug and slowly pulled the rope and
a piece of white plastic appeared in the spark plug hole. I started pulling on the piece of plastic with needle nose pliers as I slowly turned the engine and it just kept coming. A large white kitchen trash bag was finally fed out.
The engine then cranked with compression and I gave it a prime into the head and the engine promised to run.
Later installed a old used Tecumseh carb and got a good run.
The head had never been off of the engine. Someone had stuck/stuffed the plastic bag into the manifold pipe to keep insects out and it got sucked into the cylinder as the engine cranked.