Hmmm is he sure it's pinging? The LS1's have 2 knock sensors that retard the timing if they detect pinging. If he's not sure of what he's hearing than more than likely it's the valvetrain; the LS1's valvetrain is pretty loud because it's non adjustable and with the engine being all aluminum and all of the tolerances being larger to allow for flex it's easier to hear. If he did hear pinging and it didn't go away almost instantly then something is wrong because the knock sensors will only pull about 4 degrees of timing at most if I remember correctly, and if it's a 2000 then his max timing is set somewhere around 28 and with 28 degrees of timing it shouldn't be pulling but 1 degree at the most on a hot day going up hill with bad gas. He may say something like, well I had 87 octane in it, if he does then slap him and tell him to put 91-93 in it. Also if that were the case they have a low octane table for the timing with much lower numbers to keep the engine from destroying itself, this also means lack of HP tho.

-Sly

 

Thanks for all of the replies fellas....I guess I will price both yellow and red and then see which one I need...only have a stereo right now...no other devices that pull any power to speak of. The stereo is only pushing around 800W.

As far as the thread hijacks......it's kewl........we can talk about anything you guys want....chicks, trucks, a good sandwich.....

Pull up a chair...it's a free for all b!tches!!!

 

lol only 800W

-Sly

 

That's only one amp.....can't wait until I get the second one in. Then it becomes harder to tell whether your heart is beating that fast...or it's just the bass.

I'm thinking yellow top Optima.......

 

Fast1 - if you can "hear" any kind of "pinging" - I'd be a little nervous.

 

That's what I was thinking. Day one, when they got the car. My dad hammered down on the freeway and I thought I could hear some pinging. Never thought much of it. When he had it on the dyno, everyone in the room could hear some pinging. He refuses to believe it I guess. He always runs 91 octane, and the car is basically stock. Kinda weird??

 

I'm not that familar with the 2000 TransAm model, but I can tell you that only a very small number of vehicles over the years have been designed from the factory to "run on the edge," because of warranty concerns and variability in the design and build process. "Pinging" can come from a lot of sources, and sometimes isn't as dangerous or detrimental as "detonation" which is an entirely different thing. As noted before, timing has a lot to do with it - and because of inherent varibilites in the build process of all components can vary somewhat from vehicle to vehicle - bottom line being if you put two of the same vehicles under the same conditions such as WOT - one might "ping" amd one might not. One common cause over the years of "pinging" is carbon buildup in the combustion chambers, which frequently only shows up under high load or WOT conditions. Also, quality of fuel has a lot to do with it. Something you might suggest to your dad to try is put in 93 octane fuel and see if the pinging goes away.

PS: I'm a "dad" too and sometimes we're awfully hard to convince, ha, ha

 

I had that moaning sound you mentioned last year. I always wondered if that was normal and just because of the cold.

On another note, you FL guys need to quit complaining about the winter in FL