Pinging or stuttering, best of two evils

[joshhignight@techography.net (joshhignight@techography.net)]

Ok. I haven't really been able to get any good help with this so far. But I want to get the group in on this if possible. 

My engine has been plagued by pinging or stuttering issues since it began running. If I can get the ping out, it runs like poo. If I can get it to run even remotely good, it pings like there's a hundred angry diamondback's under the hood. 

There's GOT to be a way to run this thing off of pump gas. I know my compression can't be THAT crazy. The pistons are supposed to be for a 10.8:1 2L block (they're JE). The head isn't decked or anything (it's still got 180K miles on it). 

Of course I can play with the ignition as much as my heart desires, and I have one of those fancy Autotech/Quaife adjustable cam gears (Thanks Peter!), so I can change the cam timing at 1.5* intervals.

Give me some ideas! I'll try anything. I'm buying 108 octane this afternoon just to see what this motor can really put down to the street. But I would prefer not to make this a requirement for my daily driver.

Thanks,
Joshua