What rubber? The crank key is metal, as is the keyway on the balancer. Are you thinking of the RTV that is put in the keyway on install?

 

my timing is now at about 7 degrees and its still knocking a bit under heavy load. i just put in some 89 octane, and i guess i'll find out if that helped or not.

i'm sure i'm doing everything right and yes i removed the spout plug.

thanks everyone.

 

This may sound a little off, but have you tried spraying a small amount of water into your intake while it is running. If you constantly are running high octane gas and have stepped down to regular octane you may have a lot of carbon build up on your valves. Spraying a small amount of water will help clean your motor. I have a water injection kit on mine and the last time I pulled my heads off they were really clean.