I had the same ignition noise, so last week I took my car to the garage and retard it. Then the pick up power red used noticeably (Specially with the AC on) And I immediately took it back to them and advanced it a bit more. Now everything is cool, no ignition noise and the pick up is good. IMHO Give a complete engine tune up and then do the ignition timing adjustment. I don't know too much information about this, any better ideas guys?
PS. I heared Zaki is doing complete engine tune-ups including Tappet adjustments, pressure checking, injector cleaning, AF ratio checking, etc. for rs6,500 I guess. What do you guys think about that? Does that worth? and is he good? I only heard about him