compression test question

Mine is a 225, and to be honest I didn't measure the thickness of the cylinder head gasket upon reassembly. I'd have to go look it up in the paperwork. I do recall that the pistons were still below the block deck, at TDC.

This high-compression motor has the Holley Avenger EFI kit, which gives you the option of having an HEI-style ignition system with the computer controlling the timing, or just using the stock distributor and keeping the old-school vacuum+centripetal weights -based timing (which I did). I did put in the Pertronix upgrade goodies, though, including their coil.

I tried fiddling with the bracket on the bottom underside of the distributor, after verifying that it was not installed one tooth off (I tried reinstalling it +1 tooth and -1 tooth from where I had it). And upon building the motor, I did formally verify that the harmonic balancer TDC marking was indeed accurate (right on the mark!).

Pinging happens at large throttle settings at mid to high rpms.

My compression gauge is a good 20 years old, and I'll borrow a new one when I put in the rebuilt distributor in a few days.

Hmmm, I wonder if 92 octane fuel + octane boost additive is in my near future. The car has great off-idle and part-throttle torque. Oh, and it's mildly cammed with an Erson RV10 profile on the intake and RV15 profile on the exhaust.