First of all, get a new fuel cap. If your cap isn't sealing, then it's letting raw gas fumes into the air. HC's..... I can't see 9° timing helping pass the e-test either. Changing my timing even 1 degree makes a noticiable difference on the idle. Maybe it's because I have a PCMForLess chip that's probably cranked up on the timing (knock sensor is disabled). I do know that my car will ping at 8° on premium gas at WOT in 2nd and 3rd. Also when the car is running at 220°F plus......I changed the timing to 5 and then 6 and all is better now. About the O2 sensor. I put a brand new Bosch in the car after having the engine thoroughly cleaned and rebuilt. Ran pretty good...After about 3 weeks of driving it like that, I took out the Bosch and put in an AC Delco O2 sensor instead. Cost me $75, but the car ran smoother all over with it. It wasn't running bad with the Bosch. But it just ran better with the AC Delco.

I passed!!!

All I've done since the pretest is:

1) Put the original ECM back in.
2) Put in a new AC Delco O2 sensor (to replace a Bosch O2 sensor)
3) Replaced a few hoses in front of the carb and from the PCV valve to rule out any vacuum leaks there.
4) Oil change, oil filter, pcv valve, new AC Delco RT45S spark plugs
5) I put in about 1/2 bottle of the CRC Guaranteed-To-Pass gas additive to 1/2 tank of 89 octane gas (but I didnt use up all of the 89 oct. gas in the tank before I filled up with 91 octane gas before the test) (the pretest that I failed was done with 87 octane gas)

Congratulations! Now you can bring it to our next SoCal Thirdgen meeting on Sat June 7th!