I've been struggling with knock on a freshly built LT1 for several weeks. It seems to be happening in taller gear ranges at cruising speeds, and only became blatantly evident when IATs started staying above 80f all day (would see little or no knock in the mornings when IAT was lower).

Engine Specs:
Stock crank, new scat rods, cast .030 over pistons, recip assy balanced within .5 grams
10207643 casting heads, LE1 port job, manley 1.94 / 1.50 ss valves, Lunati 73925 springs
LE ported stock intake
CompCams 07-467-8 - 230/236 @ 0.050", .576 / .570 lift, 113deg LSA installed 3 deg advanced for 109deg ICL
CompCams 1605-16 Ultra Pro Mag 1.6 RRs, TFS guideplates, ARP 7/16 studs
Remanned stock opti w/ OE spec pickup, new coil, ICM, 8mm wires
StainlessWorks 1-5/8" standard length headers w/ high flow cats into 2-1/2" duals w/ X pipe

Compression ratio should be more or less stock. Other than EGR delete / block-off all other emissions devices are functional (AIR, CCP).

I've tuned VE using narrowband data with the assumption my closed loop calibration was more or less in the ballpark of accurate. That said, a large amount of VE was removed below 2500RPM - in the neighborhood of 25%. I'm sure some of this is related to the cam, but as the IATs have been climbing I've noticed ever increasing knock in these cruising ranges especially in higher gears, to the point it's stumbling so bad I thought I had a wheel bearing about to lock up. Having pulled an enormous amount of timing out of this area with no result, I'm relatively sure it's going lean and needs more fuel due to the reduced effective displacement caused by valve overlap. I've chased down all the usual causes of false knock and feel relatively confident most of it's real. Plugs show no signs of severe detonation but are otherwise bone dry. Above 3000 RPM or in PE (still using stock PE AFRs) it runs like a top and no knock. So this morning I used eehack to disable BLMs and command AFR to 13.5. Knock isn't completely gone but greatly diminished, and when I turn BLMs back on the knock count starts rolling again.

Even though it idles great in CL, I think I want to try running OL with MAF and wondering if there are any pitfalls I should be aware of. Am I safe leaving the cats on?