Can a vacuum leak cause pinging or be part of the problem in any way?

 

Im serious....I know someone that just installed a JRSC on their prelude, and the thing is pinging like crazy. They have MAXED the boost retard and played with the distributor timing, but that has not solved it and only made it worse. yes, worse with max retard. The car is still on the factory ecu, and they changed out the plugs, and as far as I know it hasnt thrown any codes yet. I dont know too much about timing, and I heard it may be related to a vacuum leak or possibly even the radiator(factory unit not cooling enough, even though temp gauge appears ok) and I wanted to see if you guys could add to that since Ive never heard anything about this before.