I was just wondering....did auto manufacturers purposley retard the initial timing on smog engines to meet EPA standards? I hear so much talk on how our sbc's like anywhere from 14-18 degrees initial, yet most of the engines I see were only set for like 2-8 degrees advanced. :confused: What gives?

Yup you are right. Retarding the advance (or more correctly limiting the amount of advance) both initial and centrif. cut emissions BUT there is no free lunch. The engines ran HOT and they also ran poorly.

An old stanby trick on a hopped up motor was to turn the distrib way back and plug the vac line to the distrib when going in for a sniff test. Ya could not screw around too long waiting in line in the summer cause ya baked the engine and if you shut them down in line they were so darn hot ya could sometimes not restart.