My Truck has pinging since day! I tryed every thing and now my warrenty is out and ford will do nuthing about it even thow I took it in befor the warrenty was up and thay sayed thay will fix it. But thay tryed every thing befor and Im getting pissed off with it. What can I do. It would be nice to get a new motor. But how!!!

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Spelling? If you took it to a Ford Dealer and had the problem documented there should be no problem after warrenty. You might even call the zone office for Ford .......good luck.

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97 F-150 4.6 auto, 4x2, 3.55 LS, WMS Velocity tube, K&N, Dynomax Super Turbo exhaust with Echo tube.
Oh yeah, it's Oxford White with crome wheels, Legacy shell & custom grill!

 

Many 5.4L's and V10's have a sound that is often mistaken for a ping or spark knock..

What is really happening is what many Ford techs will call 'flutter', and from my understanding its related to exhaust air flow.
It occurs anytime your accelerating..
Others have described the noise as 'sewing machine like'.

I'm not sure if the 4.6's have this sound or not.

My truck has this.. I testdrove 2 other 5.4L Superdutys and they also had the same sound.. It is more noticable in manual tranny configurations because the automatics tend to kick down a gear when you get on the gas.

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Y2K F250 XLT SC 4x2 5.4L 5sp 4.10LS

 

I have this flutter on my '97 F250. I'm about 2000 miles from the end of the warranty. Does the flutter have a fix or is this just a sound to learn to live with?

 

Pinging is also common in the 4.6L engine. Depending on the computer code your truck has can make it better or worse than another truck with the same engine. For example, my truck's computer code is FOU1. The FOU1 is the most agressive programming Ford put into a truck - they also used the FOU1 on the NASCAR edition.

There are several things you can do to remedy pinging on these trucks:
- run higher octane fuel
- install a Superchips (and then run premium fuel)
- remove the octane shorting bar (located between the battery box and the passenger-side inner-fender)

The removal of the octane shorting bar will retard the timing some and, as a result, will reduce the pinging. I'm surprised the dealer hasn't done that already.

Kill two birds with one stone - install a Superchips. No pinging and more horsepower (not to mention greatly improved transmission shifting).

Tom in Tacoma

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1998 F150 XLT S/C 4.6L Auto, 3.55LS, 4X2, Moonlight Blue, all the factory bells & whistles except for leather seats.

• Lund Deflector
• Lund Premier Tonneau Cover
• K&N Filter
• Body-color painted Throttle Cover
• Blue wire-looms
• Pentaliner S/R
• Window tint
• Ford side-steps
• Infiniti component speakers - front
• Polk Audio speakers - back
• Superchip (OH YEAH!!)
• Flowmaster 50 Series 'Delta-Flow' w/ 3" pipe
• Clear turn signal lenses
  
• Next up - billet grill.

Tom in Tacoma

(Washington not Toyota)
Go check out http://communities.msn.com/SS97FordsPics for the second best website for F150's

 

TheHedge:
I was planning to 'live with it'.
I've heard that Ford is aware of the issue and knows the cause of the sound, ...standing wave in the Y pipe caused by the location of the catlytic (sp) converter....


They (FoMoCo) said that they recommend that dealerships NOT change any exhaust components as it won't help the problem. They (FoMoCo) then went on to say that they'll keep the dealerships informed of any remedy that is developed, but that this causes no longevity or driveability problems.

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Y2K F250 XLT SC 4x2 5.4L 5sp 4.10LS

 

My 97 4.6 pings like something is loose under the valve cover. The dealer removed the jumper on the octane shorting bar which made the ping disappear, but significantly reduced economy and power.

I had the jumper reinstalled and the power and ping were back. The service manager admitted to alot of complaints on this problem. He also stated that Oregon has very loose regulations regarding fuel quality.

I then decided to fill the tank with premium grade instead of the owners manual recommended 87 octane. All my problems are resolved for now. I asked that a full engine managment diagnostic be preformed on my 30,000 tune up, to see if any sensor might be sending erronious information to the computer. I have a feeling that I may be using premium from now on.

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1997 F-150 4x4 4.6L super cab.

 

Would someone please describe this Octane Shorting Bar? What is it? How does it work? What does it do? Which engines?

Tks,

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Y2K™

XLT SC SB 5.4L 3.73LS

 

I took my 98 4.6 in to the dealer acouple of times for the same pinging The first time I got the usual answer , they can't find nothing wrong. Well after trying different grades and brands of gas the problem did improve but was still there. So I took it back and for some reason they changed the MAF and that seems to taken care of the problem. Hope this helps.