[sfisher71]

In addition to all the good advice, one observation: traditionally, if two adjacent cylinders are both low, that suggests there's a blown head gasket between them. Be sure to look up the bad-head-gasket thread (short version: Reinz made a small run of head gaskets that were not suitable, be sure you don't get one of those if that's what's wrong).

Your numbers should come up if you open the throttle all the way; a good reading for an Alfa 2L with proper compression should be in the 175 range.

 

[sfisher71]

In my (limited) experience in head-gasket problems, they are REALLY OBVIOUS once you get the head off. The last one I saw had a 2" piece of gasket completely burned away from the circumference of the #3 cylinder, right next to the exhaust valve. No question why THAT cylinder was low!

And as a fellow cheapskate, if it's NOT the head gasket, you'll still have to put in a new gasket when it goes back together, no matter whether the root cause was a valve or a holed piston or a broken ring. So even if the gasket hasn't failed, it has to be discarded for the sake of the rest of the engine.

So at this point... it really sounds like you need to pull the head to find out about the low cylinder(s). Anything you tell yourself to the contrary is just delaying the inevitable. Cam timing affects ALL cylinders (I looked, and there doesn't appear to be a giant hunk of metal on the #2 cam lobe causing those valves never to close ), so if just the one is super low, it is now time to pull the head and find out what's going on.