Stopping the knock: Lower compression and ported heads...

have you tried very cold plugs? my 11.25 360 iron head runs good on 93, 205 cranking psi

My 12:1 360 in my valiant had the exact same cranking pressure. It didn't like 100% 93 without some timing removed but it did run on it. Didn't matter cause I almost always ran a mix with Cam2.