well i can tell by ur advice theres alot more goin on here than i know about,....i did the best i could when putting this together, maybe i dont have the best resources around me then...i had a mopar drag racer that runs in the 9's wiht a stroked 500 help me set up the valvetrain, adj ect....i talked to don at fbo and sent my dizzy to him and had him go over it, along with my setup.....then i had a tech that does alot of tuning for racers come over and set the carb up and timing..(according to dons suggestions) I dont know what else i could of done i guess....Im sure between the heat, the timing, maybe the airbleeds, jetting ect.....theres more....but at what price? Will it still start good,, idle?....and i guess my biggest question...if i bump the timing...will that increase the dentonation prob?...or solve it....these are things i just dont know about ...as far as cyl pressure, i certainly dont know that...maybe my engine will?.......can anyone of you suggest a tuner in my area that i could take the car too that knows his ****? i live in eastern pa......