89 Lebaron issues

Hey there, a buddy of mine recently purchased an 89 lebaron with 90k on it. it has a 4 cyl, pretty sure no turbo...not exactly sure how big the engine is...ANYWAYS, the engine seems to run pretty good, smooth at least at idle, revs up nicely...but when driving, it picks up really slowly, and it seems to kind of mis-fire and buck around as your trying to accelerate....It's a pretty slow acceleration tho....Any info about this would be fantastic thanks!

Timing!

I'd start with a timing light and see if the timing is right. If its off and nobody has played with the distributor then I would check the timing belt to see if 1 its in good shape and 2 if the timing marks are lined up.

Thats what i thought, timing is off....But my friend thought it was all within the tranny, he put some lucas trans additive, and he's saying it runs a lot better....I tried break torquing it....and It didnt seem to be low on power at all....Do you know if I can rent a timing light from AZ?

maybe he had dist out and got it a tooth or to off when he put it back in? i'd get it up on number one plug then see if rotor is pointing to number one in dist cap..

Also, just FYI, if it doesn't have a turbo then it's a 2.5L.