[Jeff Chambers]

Don't think its possible to reverse the polarity; the starter is internally grounded. Sounds to me like you've got bent intake valves if you're getting blow-by back into the lower intake runners. What was the compression on the rest of the cylinders?

If you've got the rockers completely off, you won't get any compression since the intake valve won't open to let any flow into the cylinder. See if you can borrow a leak-down tester from someone. Or even just hook your airhose to the spark plug hole, then back off both rockers all the way. If you've got blow-by into the intake or exhaust with the rockers all the way off, then you've got bent valves or a messed up valve job.