Ailing engine (Updated after teardown)

Coyote Jack said
I started out at 28 degrees. I slowly upped 1 degree at a time to the 31 degrees. I even drove it trying to get a ping out of it and never did. The engine just seems happiest at 31 degrees. I even upped the boost to 12 lbs once and got on it for a couple of short bursts. The only thing that did was break a balancer and timing cover. Sure was fun on those 2 bursts though. lol That was a few years ago now and maybe that was the start of the gaskets migrating. Who knows? I know I don't.

Jack

You don’t need to hear detonation for it to do damage.

I can tell you without boost that 31 at peak torque is way too much. And you are at 31 and not pulling timing.

I’d bet everything you have (and a bunch of **** I don’t have) you are slowly killing it.

That’s too much timing without boost.