Should you run a car without a thermostat?

About your thermostat, RUN ONE.

About your timing, I have a strong running 340 that likes 14 initial and 34 advance which is normal but I also run the vacume advance with no pinging EVER on 91 octane. I have never been able to run this much timing on a stock cam low compession motor without it at least running rough if not pinging at times. You need a cam with decent overlap and good quench to run a ton of timing. On stock motors I run 8-10 initial and no more than 36 total with no vacume advance and they run smooth and don't ping on 87 octane.

Hope this helps:)