[Freddie's Regal]

It was all the timing chain and cam. Back in the day when I new very little about these cars I installed all Kenne Bell internals in the engine.

Going over my reading materials that came with the cam and chain I understand that the cam was a 4-degree advance grind. Adding to this the double roller timing chain and sprockets had three keys to choose. 0-degrees, 4-degrees advance, 4-degrees retard.

The instructions were confusing. Kenne Bell suggested that if one has one of their cams, (which I did), they'd suggest using 0-degrees or 4-degrees advance. I played it safe and used the 0-degrees as per instructions.

Bad choice! The instructions mentioned vaguely that choosing 0-degrees was actually another 4-degree advance allowing for chain stretch. Combining this with the cam grind I'm actually running 8-degrees more advance than OEM.

Realizing this error I removed the chain and reset it to 4-degrees retard.

Bam!! No more detonation. I set the timing to 15-degrees and I have a slight but barely audible knock only under a heavy punishable load, (pretty much like new cars when one slams on the accelerator). This is tolerable and normal.