Ignition timing and Distributor Question.

I failed the smoke check last week and a friend told me to take the car to a occupational center where she is stying coz she knew the smoke check teacher, they could help me fix and pass the smoke check and they did but,at the end the teacher told me that they needed to adjust the ignition timing and that the engine was pinging and asked me what grade I put in it, I told him 89 and the las time it had premium and wrote this note in the sheet in case I want to take it to a mechanic coz it's not normal to advance the distributor to the extreme. " Failed timing - Retarded 10, Adv. timing to specs 8BT, Possible valve timings problem, had to advance distributor to extreme, needs further diagnostics in this area" The report had " fail Ignition timing A02 "
Latter "pass Ignition timing B08"

Any ideas what could be wrong?