Briggs and Stratton Intek

Unless someone has been in the engine you may not be the middle of the compression stroke as the valve closes but just after BDC when the intake valve closes. The both valves stays closed until just before TDC of the compression then ACR bumps the intake valve to bleed off some of the compression. Use a dowel rod to verify the piston position.
 
As for the resistance when hand turning this the compression that you are feeling. If compression release (ACR) was working properly there would still compression to fight but at a lesser amount. This high compression is what causes starting problems with the starter as they are not strong enough to spin through the high compression of 130+psi but when ACR is working this is as little as 70 psi.
 
Also before tearing down adjust your valve clearances to .003-.005 IN .005-.007 EX. These clearance on OHV open up over time which leads to ACR not being able to do its job. Plus make sure the valve stem button(s) depending the setup are in place. Once the clearances are set then you watch for the ACR bump as the piston nears TDC compression stroke. If not present after valve adjustment then the ACR on the camshaft has failed.

It will be a spoke version. You double me on this that the engine has the 793880 camshaft by looking the model and type number of your engine. The 793880 ACR do fail more than they should which why I keep 1 or 2 793880 camshaft kits in stock at my my shop. If the ACR did fail make sure you get all the pieces of the engine as it can damage things like governor/oil slinger gear.
 
As for used just make sure it is in good shape before buying it. Most are probably from an engine that has been ran without oil that had broken the rod and put a hole in the side of the block.

I haven't seen any that are solid but the number you posted is currently superseded to 793880. Since the 698492 supersedes to the 793880 the lobes should in the correct position. Apparently Briggs went from a casted camshaft to one they can assemble.
 

The exhaust valve seems to follow an expected path.  I am probably confusing intake being open with there being a gap until closer to the top of the piston's travel.  
 
I have definitely determined there is no bump in the intake valve.  The work I have to do on the power stroke to turn this engine by hand has me very puzzled, but my next step is to take the engine off and check the camshaft.
 
Thanks for the help.  will follow up with what i find

Unfortunately I didn't see your last post and just got to work dismantling.
 
I pulled the motor and opened up the case.  I found that the camshaft looks like it is intact. The bump mechanism is there and there is some very faint spring action.  Probably just the way it is supposed to be.  Oil is pretty dark and thick.  Maybe a thicker oil than I am used to SAE 30?
 
Tomorrow I am going to visually check the cam lobes, lifters and pushrods to look for anything weird.  Any advice of what to look for would be great.
 
I probably should have spent more time examining the wiring to the starter.  but I was sure that something was wrong because of the lack of a bump in the valves and I was pretty sure I adjusted the valves to spec... on the tight side of the range.

At this point I guess one has to start with the basics.
 
If cam has not been removed make sure the timing marks on the crank gear and cam gear line up. 
If this is one of the engines with the plastic gear and lobes inspect real close to confirm they are not loose or somehow out of position.
 
I think it's possible to post pictures to this forum, if so how about a picture or two inside the engine showing cam, gear and lobes?

Looks like its up now.

Hello Mikel1,
 
The valves were adjusted to the tight range of the clearances.  I dont have a good mower battery but I did jump start from my truck battery as well as two jump packs.  They basically all had the same result.  Stuck before TDC on the compression stroke.
 
The wire connections to the starter were tight and looked pretty clean.  I didn't follow grounds or look to the other connections on the solenoid.  
 
Looks like the acr on this camshaft is 90 degrees off the max cam lift for the intake. 

Sure.  I was able to rotate the motor by hand.  There was a good amount of resistance, but I was able to do it without too much effort with just two hands on the flywheel screen.  As I said before I found it weird that there was resistance on the power stroke.  I wish my compression gauge could have registered if there was any vacuum

First off the cam rotates at Half Crankshaft speed. The gear on the crank has half the number of teeth as the cam!
And the compression relief is before not after top center. The idea of compression relief is to make the crank easier to turn for the starter. If it was after top center the compression pressure would be pushing the piston down and helping the starter turn the crank!
 
If you do in fact have 0.0265 lift at the cam from the compression relief and the valve is set to 0.003 you should see obvious movement of the valve when it comes up on the compression relief. Not sure what the rocker arm ration of an Intek engine is but should not be enough to account for the 0.0235 difference between no compression relief section of cam and compression relief point!
 
Something is either wrong in your description of what you are seeing or something is wrong with the compression relief on the cam. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the statement in you first post " the intake valve doesn't really close until about 1/2 way up". This makes no sense to me.
 
Not trying to be a jerk with any of my comments but just having a problem understanding what is really going on!