stock 318 pinging

jim in seattle said
Slowly bringing this thing back to life

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How long did this car sit?

Any chance of old gas in the tank?

If it wasn't having this problem back when it was parked, and now it is......

Let it warm up and put a timing light on it, forget what ever reading you see, like another member already mentioned, you can't always trust the readings you get.

But, you can rev the engine and observe how the advance reacts.

Also, if you have mechanical advance weights in your distributor see if there is any issue with the springs.
(weak,stretched out,broken)

I get two symptoms that might be related:

1) when I stab the gas, it hesitates and even dies sometimes. If I roll it on slowly it is fine
2) it has a pretty bad ping when I put my foot into it at all, even at low rpms. basically whenever the engine is loaded up and accelerating.

I put an octane booster in, if it helped it is not enough to tell. So on this totally stock 318, what do I look for to get the ping gone?

Points at .018 and plugs .035. Haven't touched timing yet until I know what I should try. There are so many opinions on here but none that I could find for this totally stock set up. Thanks

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If I were in your shoes, and the fuel is fresh, and the distributor is sound, I would loosen the distributor, and back off the timing, leave it partway snugged down, so you can move it with a firm hand, but it won't move on it's own.

I would water board the engine...LOL....
then drive it around, climb a hill, when all is cool, snug it down tight.

I keep the one wrench needed to do this in my glove box.

In my case, it's a 1/2" combination wrench.

When you get to the point that it runs nice, check everything and do your little adjustments, dwell, gap, whatever.

Should be fine.