258 Pinging

No balancer? What's on the front of the crank? That does seem a bit odd. I'd think that a 258 sure should have a balancer on it. (I'm not 100% sure, but I'd be astounded if it didn't come with one stock). The balancer soaks up any harmonic vibration in the crank. Running it without one can cause premature bearing wear or failure. If one belongs on there, I'd go get one sooner rather than later. You can likely get one at the junkyard and you could pick up a a timing tab while you're there to help make your life easier.
Post up on here, you might find someone that would like to buy your carb or trade a 390 for it. I know a bunch of guys have put the Holley 390 on the 225 Buick.

Another afterthought: Do you have a water temp gauge on it? What's it run at?

 

It runs right in the middle of the water temp gauge.... I have looked again and there is not balancer, just a pulley.... Found this very odd, I noticed it when I was looking for the timing line on the balancer (like Most Chevy's). I will put some thought into the Carb swap. I could also probably go back to a mechanical fuel pump at that point or at least a pump that is not as lout as the "Red" Holley. That thing screams!!! This weekend I will also do some actual temp measuring of the coolant to get a better idea.

EDIT: Forgot to include the exhaust type. I am running the Clifford 6 to 1 Header. The intake is also Clifford 6=8 4Bbl intake. I will not complain about some of the parts the PO put on that is for certain..... Especially for the price I got on it.

 

It definately sounds like you have something good to work with, it just needs some tuning, or maybe de-tuning in this case, lol. It doesn't seem to be running hot anyway. And the headers are helping to keep the chambers a little cooler. That pretty much narrows it down to timing or compression. I'd look into the balancer, or lack thereof, some more. I'm sure someone on here will chime in on what's supposed to be on there. I'd do that first so you can at least time it properly to eliminate that as a possibility, it seems that it needs fixing anyway. Pulling the head to double gasket it is not a small job. If it were me, I'd exhaust every possibility before I went ahead with that project. You can ditch that fuel pump and go back to a mechanical. I'd rather not listen to it either! It's not like that engine is going to use 50 gallons of gas a minute. Keep on it, you'll get 'er all figured out

 

Went out and worked on the Jeep for a little this morning, went down to the salvage yard and got a Harmonic Balancer from a Javelin w/ a 258. Got the balancer on and that made a huge difference in general feel of the engine. The jeep runs great without changing any timing settings (no pinging at all) until it starts to warm up, then it pings like I described before. I am going to try 89 octance next time I fill up and see if that resolves the issue. Thanks for all the input and advise.