Agressive pinging with timing less than stock

[vaccine]

Something funky is happening with my 2005 3RB, i am having large amount of pinging around 2000rpm and about 0.8g/rev. 3rd gear part throttle rolling out of corners with around 20-25% throttle.
it only happens when intake temps are above 30*C and usually takes 5-10 minutes for the car to warm up and to occur. Stock motor with Raptor headers flanged to stock Y-pipe and a 2012 STi catback with a custom tune. The particular load area has nearly 7-9 degree taken out of that particular surround area compared to the stock map. It also pings higher in the rev range but not exploring that area much yet as it might eat my pistons. The AFR's on the standard O2 sensors all report 14.7/1-lam, as does the LC-1 wideband i have in the car. The AVC-S solenoids where all changes 2 years ago, and role on and off with timing map showing correct numbers and same numbers as each other. I checked all the spark plugs today and they are the 1.1mm gap but do look a little on the lean side, i even tried 0.8 just for shits and giggles. All the plugs where of a similar color with no 1 cylinder being extra white due to an isolated knock even i might be able to associate with an injector. i just threw in a new DW65c to replace the stocker just in case of fuel pressure being low and also have a coming e85 tune, which didn't help either. Also installed a new MAF a few months back due to being no good.

My initial though was the cats being partially blocked, which would increase cylinder temps a lack of scavenging and create the knock i am seeing, but the sensors are not reporting back that the cats are too hot to the ecu. I did just go for a drive with some bolts jammed between the Y-pipe and Raptors to give some breathing space to the cat's in case they are farked, but then the AFR's don't report back correctly due to not seeing the exhaust flow, but i did see NO knock anywhere on the laptop during this.. no chance hearing it which the neighbors can attest to as it was a little loud! i have an old avcr and i am going to hook up to the front 02 sensors and check what back pressure there is as well.

Anyone have any insight for me and its got me stumped.

[HighTech RedNeck]

Fuel filter or pump on the way out

[vaccine]

fuel pump and filter have only just been done. DW65c went in.

[HardwareBoB]

Possible O ring sealing problem causing fuelling issue - Remove and check fuel pump - many people use two O rings here to avoid this issue.

[dr20t]

Have you adjusted throttle tip in?

[vaccine]

the issue was present with the oem fuel pump, i changed it with a 65c and the problem is still there.
The tip-in has been played with but it is under constant throttle say 23% where load is 0.8g/rev and 2000rpm slowly increasing..
so tip-in should not effect the issue as i can also back off the throttle a smidge and knock still there.

i check the passenger side back pressure by replace the front 02 sensor and connecting an avc-r, half throttle i barely see 0.07kgcm2 / 1psi.
went to change the drivers side and extraction farked the thread.. lol.. :-/

[Tradewind]

A self tune?

[vaccine]

yup aka DIY tune, also with some numbers from Kido i have been playing with.
i was reflashing my bugSTi way back with Enginuity till i renamed it RomRaider for them, i have only ever tuned my own cars.
i have reflashed the stock tune back on before and it does knocks heavily in the same spot as the current modified tune i currently have 7-9* taken out.

i just welded another 02 adapter into the exhaust so will fit it again and test the back-pressure on the drivers side but should be normal.
inspecting the cat's with a torch they looked fine from the surface from what i could see with no plugging or marks at all.

[vaccine]

So exhaust is back and works and have ordered a couple of new 02 sensors from partSouq as one is farked with no thread due to a shitty removal. I can't imagine both 02 sensors and the wideband being all wrong but can't hurt to have some new ones in there given the wagon has 265K on the clock. I have had it since 180K and have not changed them yet.

I tested the back pressure of the drivers side cat and around the knock area there is virtually no back pressure same as other side. Also gave it a blast coming onto the highway and registered 0.2kgcm2/3psi of back-pressure which i hazard a guess from a quick google as being about right.

I also check to make sure that is wasn't something to do with AVC-S kicking in, but logs show that it has 0'd and kicked in long before the knock starts happening, which is pretty much 4-5 minutes into a drive.. i also noticed a log showing it was pulling small amount of timing with only an IAT of 20.. so higher temps must exacerbate the problem obviously. And the knock is all very easy to hear and not just on the laptop which tends to lead me away from timing chain slap or other noise interference with the knock sensors.

Grr... Something funky going on.. :-/