The best thing I ever did was to install a dash-mounted,dial-back, timing device.
Mine has a range of 15 degrees . If I set the base timing with the knob on the device set centered, then I can add or subtract 7.5 degrees at any time. This timing chunk gets added/subtracted to whatever the D is rolling in.
This allowed me to do hundreds of roll-ons to discover the detonation commencement at any and all rpms and loads.... while driving. I did a few basic pulls and plotted the points on graph paper as, advance versus rpm at WOT. Then I built a curve to connect as many dots as I could. Then I re-centered the device and changed the base timing as was required, and another week of testing. And so on. This is your rolling chassis, real-world, ignition dyno.
Eventually it worked out that the engine needed three curves; one from idle to about 1600, and another from there to 2800 and another above that. Well three curves is not possible but two is. That was a tricky problem to solve but perseverance got it done.
After that, I tuned the vacuum advance system.
I don't recall the buy-in on that device but it paid for itself right away cuz I never melted the engine down. And now, after 100,000 plus miles, it probably helped save me thousands of dollars in fuel savings, cuz the engine always has the appropriate timing. Or at least darn close.
I highly recommend you get one, and an accompanying stand-alone knock sensor, cuz a lot of the time you cannot hear detonation. And long-term mild detonation can break stuff too. And even if it doesn't, detonation always costs power or economy.
It is better/safer to be two or three degrees short of optimum WOT-timing, than even just one degree too much. So you cannot just arbitrarily crank it up to some number your buddy throws out. And just changing the base timing does not solve all points on the timing map....... unless it was perfect to start with, and somebody just retarded it a touch; in which case you would be restoring the timing to it's former perfect state.
The dial-back allows you to determine the perfect WOT timing; you still have to figure out how to make your D meet the need, or if indeed, it actually can meet the need.
Then you still have the Part-Throttle to deal with, and the base timing