I have a 1989 Camaro LO3/TH700R4 car I'm freshening up some. Full tune up done, Edelbrock TBI intake, NOS GM Distributor, new NTK O2 sensor, rebuilt throttle body, Jet adjustable FPR, air horns ground off the throttle body and an injector pod spacer. 195 degree thermostat, 215/203 fan switch from a Celebrity (IIRC), factory exhaust with a Flow Master muffler and 89 ethanol-free AMOCO gas.

First steps are the usual. Bump base timing a few degrees and then trying to get my LTFT/BLM in line with the FPR. I just got it started Sunday after a lengthy manifold swap (cracked manifold and other issues) and, no, I don't have a fuel pressure gauge installed ATM. I need to see if my fuel pressure test kit has an adapter for it this evening.

From a short stint of data monitoring yesterday evening, my BLMs were around 105 which is pretty rich (15% ish if the info I found of 0.8% per count is correct). I dropped my FPR about 3 turns and got them in the 110 range cruising, but still 108 at idle. I assume this is fairly normal since it's a static FPR and not vacuum modulated.

Next was timing. I had it set at 0 per factory spec but I've read about guys adding as much as 10 degrees to these LO3s. However, at 3 degrees, I get a smattering of spark knock instantly when I go WOT from a dead stop. That seems to not be there once the car begins to move.

The car has 98k on it and as far as I know, it's the original driveline. Someone has had the intake off before but beyond that, I don't see any signs of the engine being out. I'm going to drop it back to 0 degrees for the time being and put some miles on it with good fuel and a healthy dose of Seafoam and something with PEA to clean the chambers and ports up some. I'm also using the Valvoline Restore and Protect 5w30 to help clean up the inside of the engine and hopefully the pistons and rings.

Once I get closer to 128 on the BLM, I'm going to hook up my WB02 and see what PE and Open Loop looks like. I have a 427 ECM I would like to swap to with headers and a modern catalytic converter to do away with the AIR clutter under the hood.

 

This is the only item on your list that I can comment on. And I believe your experience to be pretty typical. The swirl port heads don't like or need much advance to work well. It's part of their design. The next gen Vortec heads are similar...they take a bit more timing, but nothing like an earlier SBC head. When my Camaro RS was new (L03 and a 5-speed with 3.08 gears) I added a degree or two, but beyond that it was not happy. I did leave a degree or so in it, as it seemed ever so slightly more responsive to throttle input, but the difference was not measurable in the 1/4 mile.

 

I echo this. 0 to 2 deg (with the EST disconnected) is all these heads require.

 

Dropped timing back to zero and that cured the rattle.

As for the BLM, I lowered the fuel pressure till it was stumbling off-idle and sluggish and the BLM came up to 111. I've got more reading to do.

I have the '427 ECM from a 95 K2500. I'm still trying to figure out what all I need to do to be able to swap it in and not even bother with the factory one.

 

I ran my old '92 for years and a lot of daily driven miles with the timing advanced 10*. I did run premium fuel though, as it was cheap then and it would tend to ping on regular. The butt dyno said the car performed better. I recorded my mileage on every tank and best mpg was achieved with the advanced timing.

I don't think the mpg increase would be worth it these days though. Big cost difference between regular and premium.