Have you tried driving (flooring) it without the vacuum advance hooked up? Did it ping? If not, disconnect it, set the total timing to 34* Then take it out for a pounding. Did it ping? If yes you need more octane. Red deposits on the plug are usually from fuel additives/ octane boosters. The plugs look fine to me.
yes, even with the vacuum unhooked it still pings, BUT, i believe i have figured this out. The builder i bought the distributor from built it to my specs but something happened between him shipping it to me and me installing it because when i watched it with my timing light, it was advancing into the 50's WITHOUT the vacuum hooked up and into the 60's with the vacuum hooked up! Im actually surprised it didnt ping even more! Its a shame because it liked all that advance as far as performance besides the pinging.. So anyways, he had me send it back to him to put it back on his distributor machine and see wth happened..
