too high compression?

gas is recent gallon of generic CA 87 E10 stuff as it was empty, carbed motor, cam timing is fixed: no way to degree it, just line up the crank dot to a colored link and put the dot on the cam gear between the other 2 colored links. Cam and crank cog are woodruff keyed, cam was never changed, new chain installed to spec. idles fine. runs fine, just a light knock on a slight bogging of the manual transmission motor. Im going to tighten the EGR pintle (fully adjustable as its threaded) to delay onset as maybe that is issue "Engine performance issues: if the valve is stuck open the vehicle’s air-fuel ratio will be disrupted causing engine performance issues such as reduced power, poor acceleration and rough idle" watching the EGR valve unseat right off idle may be the issue (effectively stuck open opening so soon). It will seat at idle but right off idle it starts to open, thats bad as it should open a little later. I lengthened the pintle so it delays the onset and will try it out. I'd disco it but it needs to get smogged one day and wont pass without a functional EGR valve along with its elevated NOx levels. The balancing act of these early 80's passive smog devices was ridiculous!