I decided to recheck the timing on my 69Z with the DZ302 now that I'm running at least a half of tank of 100 octane. It's set at 4 deg. initial, however, when I checked the total advance it was, do you believe this, between 45 and 50 degrees!

Today, I changed to heavier springs and weights in the distributor and the total advance is now about 40 degrees. The distributor was rebuilt by the previous owner so all the bushings and everything else is new. I'm also running Petronix, but that should not have any bearing on total advance.

Oh, BTW, it used to ping under any load with 91 octane(I'm in California!), and under full throttle with heavy load with a 97 octane blend.

However, with the new springs and weights, no pinging at all with 96-97 octane, so I'm pretty happy. However, I know the service manual says the max. advance should be 32 degrees, not 40. Do I need a new distributor?

you have a distributor with 35 degrees of mechanical advance built into it? that's quite a bit- did you check it with the vacuum acvance hooked up? if so, check it without the vacuum can hooked up and see what it says then.

No, the vacuum advance was disconnected,.that's what's so interesting.