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

I've just been lurking on this one for a while. Here's what I see as the indicator of the solution that was, in fact, brushed aside:
"Well, the 2nd adjustment resulted in crappy low speed performance, mediocre mid range and top end. NO knocking though. At home I put a timing light on it. 6 initial and 20 total. The car did NOT detonate on 20 degrees of total/ "all-in" timing."

If it didn't knock that way, you could have lightened the weights (as I suggested) and reset the timing for a higher initial, then retuned the carb, and been done. you were that close. Once I saw you were ignoring that, I figured it's not worth trying anymore. You wanted to spend more, port the heads, etc etc etc. I'm glad you like the way it runs now - but you were <> close to solving it without additional expense.