K&B and MECOA offered two versions of this engine. One was the ringed .61 and the ABC version known as the twister head. The ringed version has head fins on top while the Twister head doesn't, it has two holes for a pin spanner. I own two ringed versions and I love using them as they're good power , extremely reliable and are just plain simple to use. I never had mine apart but I will say that according to the exploded view, it shows no head gasket. K&B did this also with the Sportster series engines where no gaskets were used. Is your ring possibly stuck? They don't offer too much compression initially until they get a bit of oil on them. These are not Dykes ringed engines but they feel similar when flipped over.

Your .61 might have a Dykes ring , typically they have very little compression when checking by hand but they run well.  **Looking through the 61 info on the MECOA site, it looks unlikely yours is a Dykes ring engine.  I think someone already said, they usually get better after some running in.

just flew my new plane with the Veco .61 with head shim mods. it finally started easily and behaved well during flight.
if anyone has one of these MECOA motors, I hope you will implement this
idea, it seemed to work for me so far.