detonating/pinging/knocking is not what you were experiencing then.
Detonation is an audible "rattling" like glass marbles in a tin can, when i was unfortunate enough to experience it one day by mistake (doing some ignition map tweaking after i had removed the scv's, far, far too advanced timing) i knew what it was straight away. I did not experience any loss of power; previously that morning (when ambient temps were like 5 deg C) i didn't get any audible detonation and it felt fucking fantastic to drive, but that afternoon when ambient temps were up around 20-25 deg C and heatsoaking the engine bay in traffic, it was then very noticeable audibly.
Google "detcans", build a set then go for a drive and listen out for the tell-tale rattle under load.