Thanks, Dodgem. I will look into this no matter what else I decide.
I just went for a drive. No leaks anywhere but it is still pinging.
I talked to Jim at Racer Brown. After telling him about the issues here, he thinks that my pitiful .056 quench clearance coupled with high compression is a big factor. He thinks that the real solution is to zero deck the block and run the .039 Fel Pro gasket to have proper quench. He is a believer that even with higher compression, the benefits of quench allow higher compression without detonation. It all sounds great in theory. The zero deck would raise the compression from the current 10.73 to 11.13. Thats 4 tenths!
Jim also suggested running a thinner head gasket as a test. A Cometic .027 would reduce my quench distance to .44 and raise the compression to 11.03.
Another interesting thing from Jim: When I told him that the Lunati cam made more cranking compression than the MP 509, he thinks it could be because of the valve lash! He said the lash acts as a delay in the reaction of the rocker arms. A solid with bigger specs can actually result in less lift and duration than a hydraulic with smaller numbers. In short, my valve lash may be responsible for making the Lunati act smaller than the 509, resulting in MORE cylinder pressure. He thought that I could try tightning the lash on the intake from .020 to .016 and see if that helps.
The car detonates worse now than it did with the 509 cam. I think it is partly due to the bump in cylinder pressure. I'm running a 50/50 mix of 91 and 100 now and it knocks. I think that several months back I wrote that on a 50/50 mix of 91 and 110 it ran great with the 509. The numbers are not an exact comparison though, so I may dump the 5 gallons of 110 I have in and drive it again.

Thinking back to June or July before I bought any parts, I talked to Dwayne Porter. He thought that a zero deck engine would be the best route, but also spoke of having the pistons milled on the valve side maybe .040 to lower compression some. If I ever decide to pull the engine, this may be the way to go. I'd have quench while being around 10.25 to one.