A co-worker's brother-in-law had an '83 244 that he was literally giving away for the cost of the DMV fees. The car needed brakes, a timing belt, a tune-up and was not running due to a bad AMM. Nice B23F+M46 combo, metallic blue with blue vinyl seats. "Only" 220,000 miles.

So, I bit the bullet and brought her home. I put in a used but tested AMM from the salvage yard ($50 vs over $300 for a reman!), new Bosch cap and rotor, Bougicord wires, NGK plugs and Mann filters. New timing belt, tensioner, and Hepu Waterpump. Replaced all of the belts and hoses, cleaned the flame trap and throttle body, and drained/replaced all of the fluids.

New pads and rotors up front, new pads in the back, a new MC and new lines. The MC and lines were not strictly necessary but if they were not original to the car then they were very old looking, and I am not in a hurry to die. ;-)

So, the car runs nicely now. Fires right up. Idles smoothly. Passed the mandatory smog test that is required here when title changes hands with flying colors.

But, it is GOD AWFUL SLOW. I went back and re-did the timing belt thinking that it was off a tooth and this made no difference at all.

I have an '84 with the same engine and tranny combo and while it is not "fast", it will run up to 60 in about 12 seconds, even with 430K on the original engine. This one takes, according to the stop watch on my cell phone, over 17 seconds to make the 0-60 run. It also requires a "downshift" from 4+OD to straight 4th gear to hold highway speeds (65-70) on grades, whereas my '84 does not.

I checked the compression after driving for about 30 minutes. I got 185-190-195-190. For comparison, I checked the '84 (with almost twice the mileage) and got 210-205-215-200.

Granted, those are not huge differences, but it did make me go "hmmm." I know some B23F's ran flat top pistons while others had dished pistons, and I seem to recall the compression ratios were different.

But 5 seconds slower to 60? That just can't be right. I am not sure where to look first.