Pinging

crackedback said
I'm not picking at you Mattax, just writing how I would approach it. 5* is not good for idle regardless of the carb settings or camshaft. Just not going to run well off the bottom. It's crutched because of the emissions stuff. Every SB I've had, even stock 318's, like at least 10-12 initial. Run so much cleaner and snappier off idle.

Definately did not take it in any negative way.

I was assuming he wasn't going inside the distributor, but you've convinced me he should. That would be best.
I completely agree with your conclusions that it would run better with initial at least 10* BTDC, and rpm and idle mix to match.