Let a buddy of mine have the truck for a couple of hours on Saturday morning. He put a set of platinum plugs in the '283' and moved the timing back a bit.
That was it. It runs like a bat out of h*%@ now.
Haven't hooked the boat and trailer up to it, but there's a steep grade near my place - that sets up on a bluff and I went up that sucker five times - flat out - without a single ping.
Later on - i washed the truck and took her out on the 405 for a blast and got her up to about 75 without a sweat - but then the front end started to shake just a bit - so I backed out of it. As we never tow above 65 - because of the law - that front end work can come later.
Thanks for the great advise guys - another small block saved from a dummy.
Mac