School me again... first time tuning a BB

Just the man I was hoping would chime in. I don’t have a compression tester (still building up the toolbox) but I may be able to borrow one. I started at the 18 based one what I’d read and only having access to 91 octane. What should I be looking for if retard it and I went too far back?

It may be coming in too soon, too. What RPM are you seeing 34 degrees total?