I recently replaced my engine with a second hand one which came up well - 180 psi on all cylinders (maybe a bit high for an engine of 96,000kms?)

Anyway put the loom back on and used a chipped ecu which worked fine on my old engine (160 psi). It pinged like crazy even with stock boost.

I got it tuned- they said it wasn't leaning out it was just the timing. However they had to take out so much timing with the chipped ecu that it was hardly worth it so they just used the stock ecu.

I tried raising the boost but even with the stock ecu it pings above 7psi. I changed the plugs the BCPR7ES but made no difference. Even gave it subaru upper engine cleaner.
Only things that were changed were the oxygen sensor (new one put on) and had to re-solder the knock sensor wiring.

Any ideas? I thought it was fine for stock CA's to run a bit more boost? Maybe a sensor is malfunctioning? The only other symptom is white/blue smoke on full boost but that is most likely a turbo problem i think.