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

Today I advanced the cam 4 degrees. I did a cranking comp. test on cyl # 4 to see what effect it had. It went from 160 to 165. This stuff continues to surprise me as I expected to see a bigger increase.
I am going to button up the car with the lash set to the correct specs and drive the car. If the 4 degree bump made enough differnce in the part throttle driveability, I'll leave it as is. If not, I'll try opening up the lash to the limit. I sorta feel like these moves are a crutch like some of the other shortcuts I have done. I may still be looking at another cam swap.