My truck started pinging lightly about 2 weeks ago. I've driven it easy since then and did a tune up (oil, pcv, plugs, and I bought the wrong fuel filter, so no fuel filter) on Saturday. Changed out the motorcraft plugs and installed NGK's (I think they're tr6ix's, $6.99 each). I also took out and extra 400 pounds of stuff from the bed of the truck. The truck runs fine through most of the gears until it reaches OD. It seems to ping on OD almost everytime now. What is going on? The truck really has never pinged before. I had the fuel filter changed out 3 months ago but I did run out of gas since then (I know, I'm a retard). Anyway, that was about a month ago. Can anyone help? My mods are the following: superchips tune, k & n drop in, and dual flowmasters. What do I need to do? What can help?

Thanks in advance,
Cesar

 

It is very hard to get the old gas out of the tank so if it were me I would just get some fuel additive to boost the octane.

I really doesn't work well for that but it will slow your burn enough to let you drive it.

I would run that tank real low and then get some good premium gas from a reliable source.

If it still is detonating after that I would have your Chip tune checked again.

Might not hurt to turn off the overdrive for the time being.

Was it pinging before you changed plugs?
The old plugs should show it if you had detonation.

Let us know what you find out........
Good Luck

 

Yes, the truck was pinging before I changed the plugs. I actually didn't think it could be the gas. But now that you mention it, I was sick all of last week and did not drive the truck at all. I have had the same gas in the truck now for over 2 weeks. I'm under a 1/4 tank now, so I'll gas up when I'm almost empty.
I never really saw the old plugs though. I had my mechanic (he makes house calls) come over and change the plugs and do the tune up, not to mention front and rear brakes for $110 bucks (I supplied all the parts). After all of the threads I read about how much the plugs were a PITA to change, I decided to call him and see how he changed them. He did them in an hour, whining the whole time. I will retrieve them from the garage trash tomorrow and take a look at them. What should I be looking for? Thanks EZGZ for the help so far.

Cesar

 

Mine was pinging in overdrive at low rpm's while giving it a little gas, never while cruising. Now its at Ford after 2 weeks of trying to figure it out. All of a sudden, it just started running like ****, and I had some tests ran on it at Ford, and now:

cyl 4 leaking 40% compresion
cyl 8 leaking 20% compresion
cyl 1, 4, 5 are msifiring

I hope I'm one of the 1%'ers that get an extedned warranty company to foot most or some of the bill.

Also, I was running the superchips "out of the box" tune, not one by a vendor. I think it was the hp4.

 

Get the right fuel filter and change it before doing anything. If you ran a tank out you very well could have sucked up a lot crap and the filter could be starting to get clogged. That would be the first thing I would do. Next I would get your tune checked out. What did you gap your plugs at>??? -Mat-

 

As far as plug appearnce goes.
You just need to look for signs of excess heat. Cracked porclean, melted metal, etc. and if it isn't obvious....Get a magnifying glass and in good light (like outdoor sunshine) look down inside for bits of metal. It may be hard to spot if your not familiar.

Spark plug reading is a regular topic around here and if you do a search you will probably find enouph pictures to Paper your garage wall.

I think as time goes on we will be seeing more threads like this. With gas prices going up they will continue to reduce the quality of fuel.

Here in the midwest they use corn to make Ethanol and in the winter we run a 10% blend because of the air pollution. I guess it burns cleaner.
It also has less BTU energy so makes less power. I just saw on the news where the goverment is going to start working with the farmers to help them grow some kind of Hybred corn for this purpose.

I spose our fuel filters and spark plugs will need to be flossed regularly to get the kernel bits out
If you accidentaly eat it, you will have to stay in a well ventelated area with no open flames present.

 

Halcyon,

You described it exactly. Same senario here. I decided on getting the tune up because a couple of months ago I felt a slight miss in the truck while driving it normally. Didn't feel the miss while idling or undet WOT. The coil packs were changed less than 10K miles ago and they were inspected when I had the tune up done. The truck does not seem to be missing anymore, so that's good. I also have the HP4 tune from Superchips.

Svt150,
I am getting the right fuel filter today and installing it when I get back home tonight. I did not gap the plugs because the parts guy said they were pregapped. I said that's fine, I just want to check them before they go in to make sure they are right. He showed me the screen and pointed out that there were no specs for gapping. It only said "do not gap" in the area the gap spec was suppose to be. So I left them alone. What is the gap on the NGK tr6ix's suppose to be?

EZGZ,
I retreived the plugs last night and they all looked fine. All electrodes were intact and no signs of detonation on any of them. They all look exactly the same. Slight wear on all the electrodes but no signs of detonation, fouling, or overheating.

Thanks for the help,
Cesar

 

OK. I changed the fuel filter and that did not stop the pinging in OD. I was confused about which fuel filter to install though. The parts book and the parts computer calls for a purolator F64711 which is about 3.5 to 4 inches in diameter. The actual filter in my truck was a F65277 which is about 2 inches in diameter. I replaced it with the F64711 which didn't exactly fit into the bracket very well but it's wedged into place and not going anywhere. What's the deal here? Does everyone else have the F64711 or the F65277 installed?

Thanks,
Cesar

 

Motorcraft one i used is FG-986B and it fit like a glove.

cody

 

I finally ran the tank to empty and refilled with a full tank of Shell Gas. The pinging has stopped. I can't believe the solution was that simple. Thanks for all the input and advice.

Cesar

 

change your fuel filter !!!!! today.