Mild 318 pinging

Yes, that is the tag that is on the distributor. I know that I already limited the total mechanical by welding and re-machining
the slots in the advance plate and I know that I got rid of the heavy with long loop spring. I think I replaced it with a 2nd factory light spring which may have been a bad idea. Am I correct that distributor degrees on the chart have to be doubled to get degrees read at the balancer? If so I am confused as I am getting 25* at the balancer at 2000 rpm which with 11* initial would only be 14* from the distributor advance which is half of what the specs say. Or I'm wrong about doubling and it
is right where it should be. I have had the initial backed off to 6-8* and it did seem to eliminate most pinging but it seems to handle the in gear drop better with more initial. I'm at a steady 19" at idle in park and a steady 15" at idle in gear at the 11* setting. I'll try driving it without the vacuum advance connected and, if that eliminates the pinging as it should,
I'll try backing the initial off and connecting to manifold vacuum and see where I'm at. If that works, maybe I can avoid having to mess with the advance slots again.
Sounds like the similar thing I did with mine and similar results. I just disconnected the vacuum advance and it works good without it.