Popping sound in exhaust

Actually I have heard of reversing the polarity in a magnetic pickup distributor doing just that. Put 30+ degrees of timing in it.
However the timing changes with a polarity flip, that would happen only if you did not move the distributor after making the polarity switch, and just measured the timing before and then after.

My impression of this sitaution is that the OP has been adjusting the timing with the pickup polarity not getting changed, just with polarity as it was when he started this process.