I can't do a search under ping at this time. But is it my understanding that the occassional ping under load or at WOT is normal???

 

Yes, an occasional ping is normal. Try using a high grade 89 octane. It worked wonders for me!

 

the only reason I can think is that the octane is too low. when it's too low it combusts in.... high school auto mech..... hmm, before it moves to the cylinders, which is where its supposed to combust, causing the pinging noise. i run premium for my chip, and i haven't heard a ping.

 

I notice you had 285's with a 3:55 rear end. When I had this combination I had pinging on occassion also. When I went to 4:10 gears the pinging went away.

 

I Had the same problem with my truck. I am running slightly oversized tires. I switched to 89 octane and have since had no problems. I don't care what the manual says, ping is just lost power and fuel economy and I dont think it is "normal". I think it is actually caused by the computer attempong to extract every possible mpg and therefore leaning the mixture too much

 

Not a mechanic but...I have a ping in my 91 f150-302-been told it could burn valves or on this truck usually takes out piston on number 8 cylinder...for what its worth...

 

It's not normal in my '99 w/a 5.4. You might have some carbon build up. Might try some good carbon remover on a regular basis. You didn't mention how many miles, your choice of gas, etc. Cheap gas doesn't help this problem. Just some thoughts.

 

I don't know about yours, but my owners manual says that occasional pinging is normal. I had a '00 Ranger (3.0, at) that would ping on hills and everything. I read the owners manual and it said it was normal. Well I didn't like it at all and ended up trading the thing in for my F150. I checked the manual for this one and it said the same thing. The F150 dosn't ping. Ever!

Tom

 

Minimum, LIGHT, ping is normal...However this time of the year, you are buying winter grade fuel....espically you people up north...It would probably not be a good time to tune your engine or make good judgement calls using winter grade fuel....If the piging is not light and all the time then do as the others say and move up to mid grade....I know that my is running at its peak when it is pinging(economy wise)...Now if I'm at the track and want to squeeze every ounce of power out of an engine then I back off on the timing until it stops pinging and that is max timing the engine can handle....But I already am running 108 or 112 high octane fuel....

 

I never heard spark knock on the '00 XCab with 5.4 3.31 axle that I had. Used it to pull a 5,000 lb 23 foot boat. Did not have trailer tow either.

New truck is an '01 XCab XLT Sport 5.4 3.55 on P275/60R/17 BFG.
Mods are WMS intake, Superchip and now a Bassani cat-back. Same boat. Never heard spark knock on this one either, mods or no. PCM is the SVB1. This truck does have trailer tow.

I ran Shell 87 regular on the '00 and now Shell 93 premium on the newer truck since chip. You might try a different brand of fuel or step up a grade.

 

Mach1 has got it right - a very occasional, light ping right at throttle application is normal. Anything beyond that and another brand or higher octane gasoline is in order. My '97 never pings except for right at the moment of a heavy throttle application. I run regular 87 octane gasoline. I vary the brands often. The only brand I have had trouble with here in MN is Amoco 87 octane. It isn't just my truck that has problems with it either - my clunker of an 89 Cavalier pings on Amoco 87 octane also - but no other brands. Go figure...

 

My 97 4.6 will ping when the temps are below 50 and I accelerate at RPM's go above 4000-4500 occasionally above just 3000. No pings I can hear at lower RPM's. The worst was on Speedway gas, then a little better on BP or Marathon gas, then the best I can find is some Shell gas. I think mine is due toward carbon build up and maybe a incorrect timing curve at the one point. I never thought about bigger size tires causing the problem. I did move up to 265's, but is not a huge change and do not picture that being the problem.

 

Unfortunately the search is down but there was some discussion on this a little while ago.

Someone here had a custom computer chip made that increased performance using regular gasoline by making sure that the ignition timing part of the computer was listening to the knock (ping) sensor.

I don't have time right now but I'll look for it and bump it up later. A light ping on occasion is probably normal, certain throttle positions at certain loads can cause it. Of course gasoline quality varies. Some say use higher octane but that's expensive. There's also an "old wives tale" that says if you continually use higher octane fuel your motor will get accustomed to it and if you go back to 87 octane it will ping way worse than before you started using premium. It's probably the computer leaning the mixture too much on account of not having the knock sensor "dialed in".

My 2 cents.

 

Thanks for the responses. I have about 65,000 miles on my truck now. I have been running 89 octane from Citco for awhile, and have seen a little improvement, but it still pings slightly when I am heavy on the throttle. Before my last couple oil changes, I did run Seafoam through the PCV vacuum line to try and clean out any carbon in the engine--didn't help much.

It just doesn't sound natural......

I guess I should try to ease off on the---"pedal to the metal" mentality!!!----NOT!!!

 

if you're only pinging under high load situations (like WOT) there's nothing really to worry about.

Most of the time, if you downshift (especially from 5th [O/d] to 4th [3rd]) the pinging will become nil.