Lock the idle to 12 degrees.
I run 13-16 degrees at peak load (peak torque) climbing back to the low 20's by 7600 rpm.
Wow John - pinging at 10 degrees? How much boost are you bashing in?
This is 14 degrees with 1.7 bar on 11.2 AFR's
This is the commander of my PFC, the Knock index of 17 is totally normal - The norm on WRX pfc tunes is anything <35 - Borderline safe is around 60 - Det shows up as a spike >75.
This is an old ignition map - the yellow cells indicate a 1.4 bar run through the map (05/2011- the only screen shot I've bothered to save):
Ignore the 22-25 in the first 3 cells at 800 rpm - the PFC locks to 12 degrees in these cells regardless of map setting (background setting through the datalogit I use).
None of the bottom end or midrange timings have been changed in the last 12 months, timing around peak torque is 2-3 degrees higher currently though.
The dropped timing between 8-8400 is to help prevent limiter ping (PFC uses a fuel cut limiter unfortunately).
My cruise AFR's are low to mid 15's.
Peak torque AFR's 11.0 (24/25 psi)
Idle AFR's 13.0 to smooth my cammy idle a little.
Here are my AFR targets :
HTH - err on the side of rich AFR's & soft timing around 3500-4000 to keep it safe.